QUETTA: The Supreme Court, angered by non-appearance of Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and non-cooperation of secret agencies, directed police and the Frontier Corps on Thursday to produce missing persons on Friday.
“It is frustrating that people have disappeared and not a single security agency has a clue about it,” regretted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who is heading a three-judge bench hearing a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in Balochistan at the SC’s Quetta registry. Justice Khliji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez are other members of bench.
The court directed provincial Home Minister Mir Zafarullah Zehri to appear before it on Friday. Otherwise, it warned, a case would be registered against him for having lied about the involvement of some provincial ministers in kidnapping for ransom.
On Wednesday, the chief justice had ordered the chief minister, home minister and sector in-charge of the ISI to appear before the court on Thursday, but none of them turned up.
Advocate General of Balochistan Amanullah Kanrani informed the court that the chief minister had sent an application stating that he was holding meetings with foreign delegations in Islamabad.
The chief justice said the court wanted to summon the chief minister so that he himself could observe the situation in the province.
When the court asked the advocate general if the home minister’s statement about the involvement of some ministers in kidnapping for ransom had been recorded, he said it had been submitted and the minister would appear whenever he was summoned by the court.
The court said it had summoned the minister for Thursday, but he did not appear. He would be booked if his statement proved to be a lie, the court warned.
It asked the advocate general what steps had been taken by the government to put an end to the killing of Hazara people.
The chief justice said Balochistan was a tribal society, but unabated incidents of target killing and sense of insecurity had forced even women to come out of their homes to hold protest demonstrations.
He criticised the performance of the Balochistan IG and officials of other law-enforcement agencies and said police should know and inform the court about the whereabouts of missing persons.
“It has been observed that Balochistan police are timid or incapable of protecting the life and property of people. Neither any intelligence agency nor the FC is sharing with the apex court information on the missing persons,” the CJP said, adding that such attitude of security institutions had been obstructing resolution of the issue.
He directed the home secretary to ensure immediate recovery of the missing persons and inform the court about steps taken to trace and recover senior lawyer Mukesh Kohli. Why the authorities were not informing the court from where the missing persons had been recovered? he asked.
The chief justice said if secret agencies’ stance was that they had not picked up or detained the missing persons then one should be right to suggest that they were under detention of police or the Levies Force. The government and police have failed to maintain law and order in the province.
Justice Khilji told FC Balochistan’s DIG Brigadier Shehzad that people were afraid of his force and no-one was ready to inform even the CJP about the current status of missing persons. “It is better that the masses pay respect to the FC instead of being afraid of it,” he said. Brig Shehzad said he regretted that people have levelled allegations against the FC in the court. He assured the court that his institution would strive to trace and recover the missing persons.
Justice Tariq Pervez said when police kept quiet about missing persons and did not want to share information with the court, it would appear as if they were involved in it.
Balochistan IG Rao Amin Hashim requested the court to listen to him on the issue separately in-camera. But the bench rejected the request.
The chief justice warned the IG that all officers concerned would be suspended if the missing persons were not produced before the court.
Referring to the Manzoor Mengal case, the CJP criticised Investigation Officer Abdul Qadir for telling lies and deliberately conducting faulty investigation into the case. He ordered the SP concerned to investigate the matter and register an FIR against the IO if Mengal was not recovered.
The court has so far recorded statements of relatives of 56 missing persons.
