Minister of State for Interior Imtiaz Safdar Warraich on Friday informed the Senate that the PPP-led coalition government was vigorously pursuing the case of missing persons and a total of 314 missing persons had been traced till date.
Responding to the supplementary questions raised by the members during the question hour, the minister said the enquiry commission formed on enforced disappearances under the chairmanship of former senior-most judge of the Supreme Court Justice (r) Javed Iqbal had been able to trace 181 missing persons.
He said initially, the commission was headed by Justice Fazalur Rehman, the former Balochistan High Court judge, but later he was appointed member of the Election Commission of Pakistan. He said the report of the commission under Justice Rehman had also been presented in the SC while the same had also been submitted with the prime minister of Pakistan. He said under Justice Rehman, 134 persons were recovered while the second commission had helped trace 181 more missing people.
The minister said the number of cases transferred to the recently formed commission were 138 while 538 new cases had been received by the commission. He said till date, 209 cases had been disposed of while 467 cases were in process. He said FIRs had also been registered according to the complaints but the newly-formed commission was yet to prepare its report.
About the alleged role of intelligence agencies in the disappearance of those prisoners who had been set free from jails, the minister said the courts’ decisions were binding on all state institutions and the intelligence agencies had no role in such matters. The minister said there were no Pakistani prisoners jailed without any charge in Saudi Arabia after acquittal by Saudi Arabian courts. He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had signed an extradition treaty.
Meanwhile, Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari said FATA Secretariat, like other government institutions, was answerable to parliament. He directed the leader of the House in the Senate, Jahangir Badar to hold a meeting with the officials of the FATA Secretariat and ensure that the Secretariat was made answerable to parliament. Earlier, Minister for State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Engr Shaukatullah informed the House that the officials of FATA Secretariat did not respond to the questions raised by the MPs. He said the FATA Secretariat and other related institutions had been placed under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor by former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf under an official order called the SRO and under the law, the FATA Secretariat was not answerable to him.
Asked how this SRO would be repealed, the minister said President Asif Ali Zardari could repeal the SRO through an official order.