ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) has expressed grave concern over non
appointment of chairman of missing persons commission by the government
saying non serious attitude of government in regard to recovery of
missing persons is not correct.
A 3-member bench of SC presided over by Justice Mian Shakir Ullah Jan took up the case for hearing Tuesday.
Additional
Attorney General (AAG) K K Agha told the court 134 out of 382 missing
persons had been recovered while 138 persons were being traced out.
Chairman of commission will soon be appointed.
The court issued
directives for appointment of chairman commission within a week and
observed chairman had not been appointed so far while government was
having only one-week time in this connection. Chairman of Commission be
appointed forthwith, court directed.
Deputy Attorney General
(DAG) told the court cases of 10 missing persons were very old and
efforts were underway to trace out them.
7 missing persons who
were incorporated in another list of missing persons had been traced
out, he told. Defence Ministry had constituted a special committee,
which was investigating about the old cases, he told.
He
submitted that Justice (Retd) Fazl ur Rehman chairman of 2-member
inquiry commission had gone to election commission and new chairman in
his place would be appointed.
Justice Jawad S Khawaja expressed
displeasure over it saying Justice (Retd) Fazl ur Rehman had joined
election commission six months before but no new chairman had been
appointed by the government.
KK Agha said interior secretary
remained pre occupied due to Karachi situation due to which delay had
occurred. One week time be allowed more and chairman commission would
be appointed, he requested.
Justice Shakir Ullah Jan observed it was responsibility of government to trace out missing persons.
KK
Agha said statistics were being told about the missing persons in
Balochistan and intelligence agencies were not involved therein.
Justice Shakir Ullah Jan said “ you should file written reply”. KK Agha told written reply would be filed within a week.
Aamna Masud Janjua, chairperson Defence of Human Rights said no commission was working with reference to missing persons. Online
