FIR against army men involved in Malakand missing persons case, SC told

AG assures SC govt will register case against army personnel involved in case of 35 inmates missing from Malakand Internment Centre

The attorney general assured the Supreme Court on Wednesday that an FIR would be filed against military officers involved in the case of 35 internees missing from a Malakand internment centre.

The three-member apex court bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, was hearing the case of missing man Yasin Shah on an application of his elder brother Muhabbat Shah.

On Dec 10, the court held that the army authorities were responsible for removing 35 internees from the Malakand internment centre. But only 12 of them were produced before the court.

On Tuesday, the court had given the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments 24 hours to act on its previous orders, and had warned that it would issue notices to the chief executive of the federation (prime minister) and the governor and chief executive (chief minister) of KP if its orders are not complied with.

During the hearing, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt said Additional Secretary Defence Major Gen (r) Arif Nazir would inform the court about the steps taken for the production of the missing persons. Although Nazir was present at the hearing, the bench refused to entertain the point-of-view of the Defence Ministry.

Justice Khawaja declined to listen to additional secretary defence and said the court need not listen to the ministry as it had a constitution to act upon.

Justice Khawaja further said that there was a value attached to the fundamental rights embedded within the constitution and the court had been emphasising since August 15 on the government to act in accordance with its orders but to no avail.

He added that Wednesday’s was the 35th hearing and the bench was not interested in reports and would subsequently issue a ruling in this regard.

Responding to which, the attorney general pleaded the court to grant the authorities seven to eight days’ time to act upon its orders.

Justice Khawaja said the court’s orders were not being implemented, adding that if the prime minister could not handle the matter, he may declare himself free from blame vis-à-vis the issue.

The attorney general assured the FIR against those military-men involved would be registered later on Wednesday. He accepted that the matter should have been acted upon earlier, and pleaded to the court to accept his apology.

The case was subsequently adjourned to Thursday.