ISLAMABAD: Acting Attorney-General Shah Khawar informed the Supreme Court on Monday that a detailed list of people handed over to the US by the Musharraf regime would help a lot in resolving the cases of missing persons.
‘We will be in a position soon to come out with some specifics because we have sought a report about the people sent abroad by the previous government,’ Khawar told a bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Tariq Parvez.
The court had taken up about 62 cases. Twenty-three of them have been dismissed as some missing persons have surfaced or died, or for other reasons.
The chief justice made it clear that the court would not like to encroach upon the authority of any institution, but he asked the attorney-general to convey the quarters concerned that the court had constituted a special bench to hear these cases.
The bench will commence proceedings on Dec 7 and the government is expected to provide complete record of missing persons by then.
Khawar assured the court that since a democratic government was in place, previous experience would not be repeated rather proper cases would be registered against terror suspects.
The court reproved Mrs Amina Janjua, chairperson of the Defence of Human Rights, for setting up a camp outside the Supreme Court.
‘Never use pressure tactics. We decide cases according to our conscience and never succumb to any pressures because we have to return to God,’ the chief justice observed.
Justice Iftikhar said the case of Mrs Janjua’s husband had become a big challenge for the government because no one had ever said that Masood Janjua was not traceable.
The chief justice observed that the government should take this case to its logical end, especially when according to Mrs Janjua she had some evidence in the shape of handwritten pages from the diaries of Dr Imran Munir, an accused of espionage.
Dr Munir had written in his diaries that during his captivity he had come across a businessman from Rawalpindi and his name was Masood Janjua, who was missing since July 30, 2005.
‘If the evidence is wrong, overrule it, but do not make the case too long,’ the CJ observed.
The acting attorney-general produced a report saying that out of 416 missing persons, 154 were still untraced, though particulars of 31 had been received. Even Nadra (National Database Registration Authority) did not have data of some of them.
He said advertisements would be run in the media offering a reward of Rs10, 000 to people for providing clue to the whereabouts of missing persons. Lists of missing persons had also been sent to the provinces with a request to locate them, he added.
Moreover, he pointed out, requests had been sent to the Afghan government to help trace those persons who had gone there.
The court noted that the Joint Investigation Team headed by Rawalpindi City Police Officer Rao Muhammad Iqbal and comprising representatives of intelligence agencies had recorded a detailed statement of Mrs Janjua but the attorney-general had sought time to reach a conclusion.
Regarding Dr Munir’s claim that he had been exonerated from charges of espionage, the Supreme Court asked the attorney-general to check the veracity of the statement.
Till then Dr Munir will remain under protective custody at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. The court asked the joint investigation team to record Dr Munir’s statement about Janjua. The court adjourned the proceedings till Dec 7. (News sourced from: DawnNews)
