SC laments govt’s inaction as deputy AG resigns

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed grave concerns over the federal government’s lack of attention and expressed serious concerns and anger over the absence of federal defence secretary and federal interior secretary in the case pertaining to the law and order in Balochistan and the missing persons issue in the province.
A three-member Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the proceedings of missing persons of Balochistan case at Supreme Court Quetta Registry. The Balochistan chief secretary and inspector general of (IG) police appeared before the court. During case proceedings Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry expressed strong resentment over absence of defence, interior and principal secretaries to the prime minister, despite court orders to appear in the missing persons cases. The CJ remarked that agencies were facing serious allegations but the government seemed least interested about the issue.
The chief justice remarked that serious allegations were being slapped at the spy agencies, including 80 percent against Frontier Corps (FC), adding that he had told Deputy Attorney General Malik Sikandar to recover the missing persons at any cost. “We are hearing the case and visiting Quetta for the last four months but you have no control in this regard,” the CJ reprimanded the deputy attorney general. The CJ told the DAG to do whatever was needed to recover the missing persons. In response, Deputy Attorney General Malik Sikandar put his resignation before the court, saying that court was not listening to him and he was appointed the DAG due to certain “circumstances”. The CJ replied, “It is not your ‘circumstances’ rather it is the circumstances of the families of missing persons who are sitting outside and you are coming here after meeting your family.”