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ISLAMABAD: In an interim order on a case relating to the law and order situation in Balochistan, the Supreme Court passed the buck to the elected governments and said that lack of attention by the federal and provincial governments was part of the problem.
“We may reiterate that it is the duty of the provincial as well as federal governments to maintain law and order and provide security to life and property of the citizens being subject of the Constitution,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said while dictating the order after three more people who had gone missing on April 3 were recovered and produced before the court on Tuesday.
Dr Naseer Ahmed, Akhtar Lango and Abdul Hafeez Rodiani were brought to the court by Advocate General of Balochistan Amanullah Kanrani and Acting SP Quetta (operations) Muhammad Tariq.
“The situation prevailing in the province needs special interest and attention of both the governments,” the order said.
The disappearance of these people had been brought to the notice of the court by Rukhsana Baloch, sister of Dr Naseer, during the hearing at the Quetta registry of a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in Balochistan filed by Hadi Shakeel, former president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association.
The court ordered the Balochistan IG to recover and produce them on April 10, but he failed to do so. Subsequently, the court issued a stringent directive to the IG to positively recover these persons.
At the last hearing on April 12, three other missing persons, Mir Jan, Amir Khan and Gul Mir, all residents of Quetta’s Sariab road area, were produced before the court which set them at liberty.
The three informed the court that they had been forcibly taken away from their homes, blindfolded and kept in custody for about 40 days. They were abandoned in Khuchlak area where police took them into custody.
Amanullah Kanrani informed the court that Dr Naseer, Lango and Rodiani had reached their homes on their own. The Jinnah Town police station in Quetta recorded their statements under relevant laws.
But the court noted that these were stereotype statements. “The version recorded by police is not acceptable,” the chief justice observed. He said that unless testified by police it would not be considered to be true. “Prima facie it remains the duty of police and Levies Force to provide protection to the life and security of the citizens in urban and rural areas in terms of Article 9 of the Constitution,” the chief justice said.
The court recalled that seven people who went missing from the Sariab road area and later recovered by police had been allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies. “But to establish this assertion, no evidence or proof was furnished nor is anybody willing to disclose the name of the agencies. We have inquired from police but as usual they express inability in this regard. Be that as it may, the AG Balochistan is directed to produce these persons before the Supreme Court again when it will resume hearing in Quetta on April 30,” the court said in the order.
“This court is prima facie of the view that without identification by the police and Levies Force or any other such like source, it is not possible for any intelligence agency to pick up a person,” it observed.
