ISLAMABAD – The judicial commission formed on the Supreme Court’s orders for recovery of thousands of missing persons from across the country has submitted its report with the Supreme Court as well as the Interior Ministry, sources told Pakistan Today on Sunday.
The sources said the commission had to submit its report on August 28, but could not submit it for unknown reasons. A three-member SC bench, comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, will resume the hearing in the missing persons’ case today (Monday) after a long time, as it had referred the case to the commission.
The attorney general, the advocates general of all four provinces, the Interior and Defense secretaries, provincial home secretaries, provincial inspectors general and Islamabad inspector general will appear before the court on notice. The judicial commission was formed on the Supreme Court’s orders in March 2010 with Justice (r) Kamal Mansoor Alam, an ex-judge of the Supreme Court as its head.
The other two members are Justice (r) Nasira Javed Iqbal, a former judge of the Lahore High Court and Justice (r) Fazlur Rehman, a former judge of the Balochistan High Court. Defence of Human Rights Chairwoman Amina Masood Janjua, whose husband – Masood Janjua – is missing since 2005 is also assisting the commission.
When contacted, she said, although the commission had submitted its report after a four-month delay, it still had not been provided to the families of missing persons and the complainants. However, she said she was expecting that the Supreme Court might order provision of the report to the families of the missing persons.
She said the families of thousands of missing persons were anxiously waiting for the report, adding that the report should be made public as promised by the government. She said the testimonies submitted by the people released by intelligence agencies were with the Interior ministry but no one was being given a copy of those documents either, which was strange and negation of the government’s assurance that every output of the commission would be made public.
She said the families of missing persons were living a miserable life and hoped that the recommendations of the commission would also include compensation for these families.
