IZZAT Khan, 65, was now a familiar face at the Peshawar High Court. Walking with the help of a stick he turned into a frequent visitor to the high court following his teenaged son, Arab Gul, went missing around a year ago. Being from poor social background he could hardly afford to visit the court from his native Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda. People who knew him would give him charity so he could pursue the case of his son.

In numerous interactions this writer found him an optimistic person, saying that one day his son would be released by security forces as he claimed that Mr Gul was in their custody. Izzat Khan has no longer to wait for return of ‘missing’ son as a few days ago on June 26 his other son, Amroze Khan, visited the court and informed it that his father had died of a heart attack. He said that just before his death his father wished to see Mr Gul, but they could not fulfil his last wish.

Izzat Khan had claimed that his son was only 15 and one of his legs was paralysed because of polio due to which he had to use crutches. According to him, Mr Gul had gone to his brother’s residence at Michni and while returning he was picked up by personnel of Frontier Corps. He was informed about his son’s detention by a former detainee who remained with him in FC camp at Warsak and was later released.

What happened to Izzat Khan is only a glimpse of sufferings faced by the families of missing persons. On June 26, around 170 habeas corpus petitions, the largest in Pakistan, were fixed for hearing before a bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk.

The Courtroom No I was full to its capacity and outside lawns, courtyards and verandas of court were flooded with families, including men and women of all age groups and from different backgrounds. These visitors included elders using walking sticks, patients on wheelchairs; children hoping to see their fathers etc.

Most of the women with veiled faces were narrating their stories to media persons in the hope that this might help them in recovery of their relatives. However, they didn’t know that those detaining their relatives have no respect either for the judiciary or for media.

Following the bench reprimanded the provincial special secretary home department he came up with lists of detainees who were recently set free or sent to internment centres in Malakand region. According to those lists, 1,035 detainees were released, including those de-radicalised in reformation centres whereas around 895 have now been kept at internment centres. The court adjourned hearing of these cases to July 11 and decided that till that time the court officials would tally names of the detainees with the lists provided by the government so as to ascertain whether any of the detainee was in those lists or not.

The visiting family members of “missing persons” left the court in the hope that the name of their respective relative might be in the lists.

Ms Amna Masood Janjua, leading a movement for recovery of missing persons including her husband Masood Janjua, was there to give courage to the visiting families. In fact, during last couple of years she has emerged as a symbol of courage who has been striving wholeheartedly for the cause of these families.

Elderly Anwer Bibi, hailing from Lahore and sitting in a wheelchair, had specially come to know about the fate of her missing son, Moazam Bashir, who was allegedly taken into custody by security forces two years ago in Peshawar. Mr Bashir had gone missing three months after his marriage and during his disappearance his wife gave birth to a baby girl. Oblivious to the entire situation that baby was also in the lap of her grandmother at the high court.

Unlike Izzat Khan who died without getting information about his son, Anwer Bibi was lucky enough as she was informed that her son had been detained at an internment centre in Swat. She told reporters that her son was a cloth dealer and had come to Peshawar for buying cloth. On her request, the court directed the government to arrange meeting of family members with the detainees.

In a related development the very next day, three bodies of missing persons were recovered from various areas in Haripur and it appears that the high court has to go a long way in recovering missing persons.