CJP refuses to meet UN experts

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday refused to meet with the United Nations (UN) mission which arrived in Pakistan on Sunday to investigate the issue of missing persons in Pakistan.
Turning down the visiting mission’s request, the Supreme Court said the matter was sub-judice and that it was not appropriate for the CJP to discuss a sub-judice issue.
According to sources, the visitors had requested a meeting with the CJP through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, in its reply to the Foreign Office’s letter, the Supreme Court said that a debate by a foreign delegation over a sub-judice matter was not appropriate. “As the cases of missing persons are pending before this Court, therefore, propriety demanded that the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan may not discuss the matter which is sub judice. Therefore, regrets were conveyed to the Ministry expressing the inability of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to receive the UN delegation,” said the Supreme Court letter sent to the Foreign Office on September 10, 2012.
A three-member bench headed by the CJP and comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain has been hearing the case of missing persons in Balochistan. The Foreign Ministry had written two letters to the Supreme Court, informing that the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was visiting Pakistan at the invitation of the Pakistani government.
Meanwhile, Foreign Office acting secretary Alamgir Babar told the Public Accounts Committee at the Parliament House that the UN mission on missing persons had visited with the government’s permission, but it had no authority to probe the matter.
He said that the UN mission’s tour was a routine matter, as they visit various countries of the world. He said the mission would submit its report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the conclusion of its visit.
He said that all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Interior, had been taken on board regarding the visit. The members of the Public Accounts Committee termed the UN visit an “intervention in national affairs”. They demanded the government to cancel the mission’s visit, and ask it to go to Indian-held Kashmir for probing the enforced disappearances there.
Expressing resentment over the visit, the committee said that it was part of a broad conspiracy against the country. Also on Tuesday, the two-member UN mission led Olivier de Frouville called on Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar at the Foreign Office. The foreign minister welcomed the mission and briefed them on the steps taken by the government for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country.