Thursday, July 19, 2007

When 118 Is Equal To 248

See if you have read these words before? Many times. Right?Musharraf Government says it has found 118 missing persons and the Supreme Court seeks separate reports on each case.

How many time do the judges have to repeat this tiring, stale rhetoric to realize that we know what is going on?

I ask the to stop playing this game of giving hope to the families of the disappeared Pakistanis and throw your hands like sons of men and admit that the odds are to high for you to pull it off.

Look at this news piece: "The government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that five more missing people had been traced and four of them sent home. It said 118 out of a total of 285 missing persons had been traced so far".

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Tariq Khokhar told the court that Zafar Yasin, Naeem Noor Khan, Luqman and Abid Raza had been recently found and sent home, adding that Alim Nasir was in custody of a political agent [?] in DI Khan.

Luqman’s brother-in-law contradicted the DAG’s claim, saying Luqman had not reached his home yet. The SC bench, consisting of Justices Javed Iqbal and Falak Sher, directed the DAG to recheck the record.

Can you imagine: check the record!

The wife of Khalid Khawaja, a former ISI official claimed police arrested her husband without any warrant, adding that he was not linked with Lal Masjid.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Muhammad Ali said Khawaja was booked in a police case. The court directed the DC to submit details of the case with it in a week.

How many weeks are in a judicial week?

The bench also took notice of the arrest of Hafiz Abdul Basit on allegation of his involvement in the ‘Muaharraf attack case’ and directed the authorities to release him because he was not named in the list of convicted people and no FIR was registered against him.

Would they? No way.

Father of recently traced Qari Obaidullah told the bench that he had met his son in CMH Rawalpindi, adding that the man’s weight had reduced from 72-kilogrammes to 42-kilogrammes. The bench summoned a complete record of medical treatment of Obaidullah from the CMH. The DAG, meanwhile, said missing Attiqur Rehman was not held by any intelligence agencies.

SP Faislabad told the court that an FIR for the disappearance of Atif Javed was lodged on August 4, 2005. The court called for a complete record of Javed’s case.

Human rights activist Asma Jahangir appeared before the court to plead the constitutional petition of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). She said only 78 out of 173 missing people listed by the HRCP had been traced thus far. The bench expressed anger [ha!]over the slow process of recovery of the missing people.

Advocate Habibur Rehman pleaded a constitutional petition for 28 missing Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal men. Justice Falak Sher said four governments had expired since the case began, asking the lawyer why it was not brought into court earlier. “You did not bother to lodge FIR of these missing people. Today, if a person tries to move Supreme Court regarding the killings in riots during 1947, then how we would help him,” asked Justice Falak Sher.

The counsel submitted that the persons mentioned in his petition disappeared between 1992 and 1996. Justice Javed Iqbal asked him to provide complete details of the missing people within a month.

Amna Masud Janjua, coordinator of the families of missing people, submitted that the court must pass an order to expedite the process of recovery. The bench directed the authorities to give a separate progress report on each missing person within 10 days otherwise action would be taken against them. The hearing was adjourned till August 6.

August 6 is not far. Let us see what the judges come up on that date.

Now look at the following news piece: "Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mahmood Khokar on Wednesday told a two-member bench of the Supreme Court that five of . the remaining 248 missing persons had been traced and released. Is it 118 or 248?

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