Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Wednesday said the ‘system’ had started to work in the country and its glaring example was the ouster of a prime minister and the election of another through parliament.
The CJ, who heads a three-member SC bench, passed the remarks while hearing the cases of missing Baloch persons in Quetta on Wednesday. Justice Khliji Arif Hussain and Justice Jawad S Khwaja are other members of the bench. During the arguments, Frontier Corps Counsel Raja Irshad said only the system of the Supreme Court was working satisfactorily.
Bu the chief justice said the political system was also working well. “Look at parliament, a prime minister went, the parliament elected another one and the system is working smoothly,” he said. Justice Chaudhry said, “Enough evidence is available of the involvement of Frontier Corps Balochistan in picking up of every third missing person.”
The bench was hearing a case of February 2011 in Tootak, Khuzdar district, in which the FC allegedly killed two tribesmen while taking 30 others into custody. The court ordered the FC officials to present the persons of Tootak incident, otherwise it should ask then commandant of the area to appear before the court along with all the records and personnel engaged in the action. The CJP said, “Why civil administrative officials do not make any progress in the investigation and ask FC officials about the custody of these (14) people.” He said if officials concerned were found guilty of negligence, they would not be spared.
Balochistan Chief Secretary Babar Yaqub said all deputy commissioners and other administrative officials were strictly advised not to show any negligence in investigation of missing persons, otherwise punitive action would be taken.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said to the FC’s counsel, “You should bring miscreants [before us], we will be the last person to spare them, rather will try them in court.” While defending the FC, Raja Irshad said FC was a national force and working under the constitution for the honour and protection of life and property of citizens and a conspiracy was being hatched to defame the force.
Justice Khawaja said, “Then why is FC being named in every third missing persons’ case?” Balochistan Advocate General Amanullah Kunrani told the court that 385 dead bodies have been recovered from various areas of Balochistan until a few months ago and the number had grown since. In another case of Kabo, Mastung district, the chief justice directed FC to produce Zafarullah, a student of Khuzdar Engineering University on next hearing (Thursday), otherwise submit all relevant records and ask concerned FC officials to appear in court. He said, “Unless some of the officers from the civil administration are punished for their negligence regarding the missing persons case, there will be no improvement.”
“We are being forced to do something regarding the missing persons case,” he added. One of the missing persons, Mufti Abdus Sattar, appeared in court and said he and Mohmmad Iqbal were picked up by plain clothed men from his residence.
He said he had been set free after 13 days, but his colleague was still missing.
The Supreme Court also took suo motu notice of the murder of Mir Akmal Raisani, nephew of the Balochistan chief minister, in Mastung.
The chief justice expressed his displeasure with the police for making no progress in the investigation into the murder, which took place in front of over 3,000 people during a football match.
Ouster, election of new PM shows system is working: CJ
