- Justice Khawaja disagrees with in-camera proceedings of missing persons’ case
The Supreme Court (SC) has accepted Ministry of Defence’s plea for fixing for hearing all missing persons’ cases, including the case of 35 missing persons lifted from Malakand Internment Centre, before one bench and referred the matter to chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) for the constitution of a larger bench.
A two-member SC bench led by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja took up the case for hearing Thursday.
The court requested the CJP that four different benches were hearing the cases of missing persons. It said that the legal and constitutional issues and questions in these cases were of identical nature and should be heard together as differences in verdicts by different benches could give rise to difficulties.
Certain intelligence agencies were also facing the charges of allegedly being behind the picking up of these missing persons, therefore a larger bench be constituted to hear all these cases and give a decision, the court held.
IN-CAMERA PROCEEDINGS WON’T WORK:
While hearing the case, Justice Khawaja remarked, “All the institutions are striving to alleviate the difficulties of the nation and the court also wants solution to the difficulties facing the nation. We cannot initiate in-camera proceeding of missing persons case as it can yield misgivings. The room can be vacated during the process of hearing or some other methodology can be pursued. We want to hear the matter in open court.”
Moreover, the court sought progress report from the police within 10 days in respect of Abdul Mannan missing person case.
Earlier, the attorney general (AG), while presenting a certain secret document before the court, prayed for fixing all the cases of missing persons for hearing in one bench.
Later, the court referring the case to CJP adjourned the hearing of the case indefinitely.
