PESHAWAR, March 6: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is having discussions with the security establishment about appropriate amendments to internment centre regulations to resolve the issue of enforced disappearances, the Peshawar High Court was told on Tuesday.
Provincial advocate general Asadullah Khan Chamkani told Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Azmatullah Malik during hearing into separate missing person cases that the apex committee comprising provincial governor and chief minister and Peshawar corps commander had discussed the issue of making appropriate amendments to Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation, 2011, for Fata and Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation, 2011, for Pata to free them from lacunas.
The chief justice said the court was not concerned about the said regulations as they weren't challenged before it and their major concern was how to ensure the shifting of more detainees to the notified internment centres.
Deputy attorney general Iqbal Mohmand said the court's efforts had led to the freedom of 27 detainees over a couple of weeks.
The chief justice said 700 to 800 detainees had so far been shifted to internment centres and that efforts would be made for the shifting of more. He expressed annoyance over the government's failure to construct new prisons in the province and asked DAG and AG to explain the government's position on it.
The chief justice said the provincial government knew at least four years ago that these detainees would ultimately be handed over to it, so why it didn't plan construction of new prisons. He said in Swat a five star hotel named PAITHAM (Pak Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management) had been converted into a detention centre by the security forces.
In a lighter vein, the chief justice observed that the conversion of a hotel into a detention facility should be included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The bench inquired about delay in the production of the minutes of the February 14 apex committee meeting held on its orders about missing persons.
“If there is something confidential in the minutes, it should be produced in our chambers and will not be made part of the record,” the chief justice observed.
The bench expressed annoyance over statements by some provincial ministers that the courts had been acquitting suspected militants and observed that if they had reservations about any case, they should refer it to the court.
The chief justice observed that if the ministers found error on part of the relevant judicial officer, they would issue show cause notice to him otherwise the government should take action against its prosecutors and investigation officers for faulty investigation.
Meanwhile, the bench disposed of a habeas corpus petition challenging alleged illegal detention of a student in light of his freedom.
The petition was filed by Wasif Khan, who alleged that his son, Mohammad Ahmad, who had passed his intermediate examination and was going to Peshawar University, was taken into custody by law-enforcement agencies on November 26, 2011.
The bench said it was unfortunate that the detainees freed never appeared before the court to record statements. The petitioner said his son didn't show up fearing his disappearance for the second time.
The bench also allowed more time to the interior ministry for tracing the whereabouts of a father and his son, and adjourned hearing into the case until April 18 with the direction to the relevant police officials to produce the daily diary reports of their police stations recorded during the two's detentions.
The petition is filed by Mauvia Khan, who challenged detention of his father, Taj Bar, and his brother, Hussain Ali.
Arif Jan, counsel for the petitioner, said law-enforcement agencies first picked up Taj Bar from his house at Behram Kalae in Nowshera on May 20, 2009, and later his son on February 19, 2010.
The bench also adjourned until April 18 the hearing into another habeas corpus petition challenging detention of a clerk of a bus stand, Wakeel Khan, who was allegedly arrested on January 5, 2011.
The petition is filed by his son, Shahzad, a resident of Warsak Colony. The DAG told the court that the Military Intelligence had sought more time for tracing the detainee.