ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Monday said it would order abduction cases against intelligence agencies if the missing people weren’t found, and directed the secretaries of Defence and Interior ministries to ensure their presence in court at every hearing of the case.
Before adjourning the hearing for a week, the two-member bench of Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said those who took oath under the constitution would have to follow the constitution and operate by its parameters. Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed said making the law a joke would not be tolerated.
The court was displeased with a report by the attorney general on missing persons and directed him to meet top Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officials and persuade them to take to task the people they had picked up if they could be linked to terrorist outfits and inform their families, or else set them free. “Half of these cases could be resolved this way,” the court said.
The court also said the case was of public nature so it should be taken up in parliament. The court also said that all state institutions, including the secret service, were bound to implement the constitution and the law. Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq told the court that some parts of the report were sensitive, so it could not be given to the complainants, petitioners or heirs of the missing persons,
but the court told him to inform it about sensitive parts of the report and the report should be given to the complainants, petitioners and heirs of the missing persons at the next hearing after excluding these parts. The court also said it would examine whether it should be made public or not. Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed said the court, being guardian of the constitution, could not shut its eyes to its violation. “In these circumstances, who would say we live in a civilized society?” he queried.
The judges said the court would persist with these hearings till all the missing persons were found. Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and noted human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir told the court that Ishfaq Hussain, Sameer Rind, Siddique Idu and Shehzad Murtaza Alvi were allegedly abducted on December 21,2010, just four of 235 missing persons, of whom 174 had been recovered so far.
She said Siddique Idu of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan was told by the intelligence agencies that he would be picked up, while Shehzad Murtaza Alvi, an employee of Pakistan Air Force was picked up by the intelligence agencies from Jaccobabad, in Sindh. She said the secret service was violating the constitution and law, the court’s orders were not being implemented and action was not being taken against those responsible.
