KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the federal secretary, ministry of interior, for consistently violating its orders by not submitting details from the internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding missing persons.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha directed the inspector general of the Islamabad police to arrest interior secretary Yousuf Nasim Khokhar and produce him before it on May 27.

The bench also issued a show-cause notice to the secretary, ministry of interior, asking him why he should not be proceeded against for the violation of its orders, and yet again directed him to produce a list of internment centres in KP with names of persons confined there and highlight if those were missing persons whose cases were pending before the SHC.

‘We have no option but to issue non-bailable warrants against Yousuf Nasim Khokhar’

When the bench took up a set of petitions about missing persons for hearing on Wednesday, the interior secretary was found absent and he had only sent a formal report regarding one missing person.

The bench said that the interior secretary had sent deputy secretary Nadeem Bhatti to assist the court, but he had no report to file.

It further noted that the bench had issued several orders on previous hearings in different petitions of missing persons directing the interior secretary to collect reports from the interments centres and submit the same, and on March 5, a joint secretary, ministry of interior, filed a report which contended that the internment centres were under the administrative control of the KP government and they had approached it to furnish reports.

The report sent by the interior secretary on Wednesday contended that one missing person, Syed Ali Mehdi Naqvi, was not held by any internment centre in KP and the matter was also pending before the Supreme Court.

However, the bench observed that the secretary had not fully complied with its earlier orders and attempted to hide behind the fact that this matter was sub judice before the SC.

“Our understanding is that matter before the Supreme Court concerns whether the internees in KP have been legally held in such internment centres rather than whether any of these people in the internment centres are missing persons,” it added.

The bench further said that the secretary had yet again failed to comply with its orders and he had neither bothered to appear in court nor sent an additional or joint secretary to assistant the court, rather asked a deputy secretary to attend the hearing.

“It is a clear indication that he has the least interest in tracing out the missing persons and has absolutely no respect for the orders of this court which he has consistently been violating,” it added.

The bench in its order further said, “Under these circumstances, having shown maximum judicial restraint, we have no option but to issue non-bailable warrants against Yousuf Nasim Khokhar, secretary ministry of interior, who considers himself to be an exceptionally important person and above the law even in cases where there has been a violation of the citizens fundamental rights, who is undermining the rule of law.”

It directed the Islamabad police IG to ensure execution of such warrants and produce the interior secretary before it on May 27.

Earlier, the bench had also issued show-cause notices to the interior secretary for repeatedly flouting its directives issued in different petitions of missing persons asking him to provide details from the internment centres in KP regarding missing persons.

The bench had also come down hard on the federal authorities for taking little interest in these cases and deplored that no legislation had so far been made against enforced disappearances.

It had further remarked that the federal government had been making hue and cry about tracing out the missing persons, but it appeared from the conduct of the secretaries of interior and defence that this was only for optics and no practical action was being taken.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2021