Hollow Promises of Justice

The Faisalabad police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) admits in the court thatHafiz Abdul Basit was arrested by his force in January 2004, and after taking his statement he was handed over to Captain Amir of Military Intelligence.

Then Hafiz Abdul Basit's uncle, Hafiz Abdul Nasir submits an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that he himself was abducted by army and put in detention with his nephew to put pressure on the ‘detainee’ (Hafiz Abdul Basit) whom he found in critical condition.

But when on Wednesday the Supreme Court bench, comprising of Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Falak Sher taking up petitions, for the recovery of ‘missing’ persons, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and former senator Farhatullah Babar and complaints of Amina Masood Janjua and others, orders that Hafiz Abdul Basit be produced in the court the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) Director Colonel Javed Iqbal Lodhi insists that the he and his NCMC have no information about Mr Basit.

Justice Javed Iqbal then orders that either Mr Basit be produced in the court or the authorities concerned rebut the claim on oath.

Deputy Attorney-General Tariq Mehmood Khokhar informs the court, however, that four more missing persons had been "traced".

DAG said Sher Ahmed Khan and Mohammad Jan had been found in the custody of Dera Ismail Khan police for their alleged involvement in a bomb blast case.

Afzal Dilbar and Shabbir Tararau had reached their homes. (From where he does not say; and the judges do not ask.)

According to DAG's latest statement out of 254 missing persons on the list 102 had been located. 152 were still "missing".

But Justice Javed Iqbal assures the families that the case would be taken to its logical conclusion and legal action would be taken against those responsible, regardless of their official status.

“No one is above the law. Legal action will be taken irrespective of who is who. And what I am saying, I mean it. If someone feels that he is above the law, he is committing a mistake. Let your superior know that we are very serious about this case,” Justice Javed Iqbal observed while giving directions to the NCMC representative.

The judge asked the NCMC director under which law had the people been picked up, detained and then released.

Then the judge give a nice piece of advice to the abductors: “There are a number of statutory laws to proceed against any person. Why don’t you adopt those provisions”.

Then he gives just a glimpse of the tragic and grave situation of the abuse of human rights in Pakistan at the hands of military government: “I receive 10 to 15 letters of complaints daily, mostly from Balochistan, regarding enforced disappearances”.

The court took suo moto notice of fresh ‘disappearances’ of Shah Zain Bugti, grandson of the late Baloch leader Akbar Bugti; Ghulam Qadir and Khan Mohammad. The latter two were picked up from Gaddap in Karachi on April 16, while Ali Asghar Menagalzai was taken away from Quetta.

The case of a 12-year-old girl, Sherry, whose father Abdul Wahid is reported to have been picked up by intelligence agencies from Makran on March 14, will also be taken up during the next hearing on June 20.

Advocate Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui told the court that most cases of disappearances belonged to Balochistan. Even the district nazim of Dera Bugti had been picked up, he said.

Former senator Babar urged the court to obtain affidavits from the heads of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the MI about the missing persons.

Advocate Dr Babar Awan said the federal information minister, interior minister and the ISPR director-general had confirmed the arrest of a wanted man, Naeem Noor Khan, but he was still in the category of ‘missing’ persons and his whereabouts were not known.

Justice Javed Iqbal assured the families of the missing persons that action would be taken at the inspector-general and secretary level, and constables or SHOs would not be made scapegoat.

Amina Janjua filed an affidavit, stating that five released men told her that they had seen her husband Masood Janjua in different detention cells of the ISI, including the army-run 501 Workshop in Rawalpindi cantonment. The court directed the DAG to verify the contents of the affidavit and submit a report, with the observation that “the 501 Workshop is not out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”