Skip to main content

Kakar appears before IHC in Baloch missing persons case, says political parties should work on solving issue

After being summoned for a third time, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday finally appeared before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a case pertaining to missing Baloch students.

During the hearing, which was presided over by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Kakar said that the issue should be solved by the country’s “major political parties” as the incoming government would have the powers to legislate on the issue.

Justice Kayani had resumed hearing a petition regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. At the previous hearing, he had remarked that the “purpose of summoning the prime minister was to inquire why the state’s premier is failing in his duties.”

The commission was established in 2011 to trace missing persons and fix responsibility on the individuals or organisations responsible for it.

The IHC had previously summoned PM Kakar on Nov 29. After he had failed to appear before the court, it had warned that a case could be registered against the interim premier and others if they failed to reunite the missing Baloch students with their families.

During the Nov 29 hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan had informed the court that out of 50 missing persons, 22 had been recovered, while the whereabouts of 28 others were still unknown.

On January 10, Justice Kayani had remarked that a day would come when intelligence officials would also be held accountable and face prosecution for cases. In a subsequent hearing, he had summoned PM Kakar for a second time, observing: “The punishment of enforced disappearances should be the death penalty.”

However, the caretaker premier had again failed to show up on February 19 and was summoned for a third time today.

The court had also issued directives for constituting a joint committee of directors general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Service Intelli­gence (ISI), and Military Intelli­gence (MI) for tracing the whereabouts of students from Balochistan who are allegedly missing.

On Tuesday, the federal government had approached the IHC seeking to overturn the order.

Today, Kakar and interim interior minister Gohar Ejaz appeared before the IHC. Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan and human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari also appeared before the court.

The hearing

During the hearing, PM Kakar said, “This matter should come to an end. The series of accusations levelled against the state every other day should stop. The law will have to see how to deal with non-state and state actors.”

Justice Kiyani then remarked that no court could grant protection to those who were against the state.

He then asked the prime minister if he could legislate on the matter, to which the latter replied, “I cannot. The new Parliament will have the powers [so] they can.”

“The authority to file a case lies only with the police, not with anyone else. Major terrorists were handed punishments by courts in this country. It is mandatory to present the people being picked up before the courts,” Justice Kayabi said.

Kakar stated that “major political parties” should come together to solve this issue. “Our institutions have made great sacrifices. Every day, the jawaans of the institutions are being martyred.

“Every day, the children of the institutions’ are made orphans but we are silent. Article 5 of the Constitution demands unconditional loyalty from me,” he added.

Justice Kayani went on to say that examples of enforced disappearances were also present in Islamabad. “We do not need to go to Balochistan. We have examples of Islamabad before us. Matiullah Jan is standing in front of you. He was picked up in broad daylight. A video was also present [of it].”

“The point is the same; that everyone should abide by the law and not go against it,” he added. Kakar then said that there should be a case file against “whatever happened with Matiullah Jan”.

At one point during the hearing, Justice Kayani said he had formed a three-member committee on the issue, which would be questioned in the future.

“t is my request that let the Executive oversee this as it is its jurisdiction,” Kakar told the judge.

More to follow



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/GdKmoil
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ailing Pope Francis to embark on Asia trip, his longest ever, in September

Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from September 2-13, the Vatican said on Friday, announcing his first overseas trip of the year and the longest of his 11-year papacy. The Asia trip has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether the 87-year-old pontiff would embark on it given his increasing frailty, with a record of skipping engagements due to health problems. His last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France in September. In November, he pulled out of a trip to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai because of a lung inflammation . Francis is now scheduled to be in Jakarta between Sept 3-6, Port Moresby and Vanimo between Sept 6-9, Dili September. 9-11 and Singapore Sept 11-13, his spokesman said in a statement. Vietnam, which had been suggested by the pope and Vatican officials as a possible further destination during the nearly two-week long Asia trip, was not mentioned. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘A war out there’: Maple Leafs survive shootout thriller in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Whew. They needed this one, even if they didn’t wholly deserve it. For a Monday night in Salt Lake City, the stakes felt unusually high for the sagging, road-weary Toronto Maple Leafs .  Heading into their inaugural game at Delta Center, the Leafs had dropped three straight, blown a couple leads, slipped out of first place, and  distracted  the fan base by propositioning their best player with a trade.  Worse: Their process hasn’t been tight for a couple weeks. Mistakes have crept in. Speed is giving their defence issues. And their razor-sharp goaltenders have begun to look human. Head coach Craig Berube held an intense team meeting Sunday, following Saturday’s 7-4 outclassing in Denver. Multiple players spoke up. Captain Auston Matthews said they’d reached look-in-the-mirror time. “The really bad games have a good way of being the biggest learning experiences,” thoughtful goaltender Joseph Woll said, following Monday’s slump-snuffing, nail-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

A diary of (near) default - 2023 was a year of economic uncertainty in Pakistan

Despite having little in common, even our political parties could agree on one thing: Pakistan’s economic situation was dire in 2023. The year saw Pakistan go through a long and rocky road to finding some semblance of economic stability — if it can even be called that — while weathering political and social turmoil. Pakistanis also experienced a double whammy this year: the one-two punches of the worst economic crisis in decades and all-time high inflation. Add to that the gut punch of the aftermath of the catastrophic floods of 2022 began to settle in. Flood victims receive boiled rice from relief workers, after taking refuge on a motorway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Charsadda, Pakistan on August 27, 2022 — Reuters In 2023, according to the World Bank , over 39.4 per cent of the population fell below the poverty line, which means over 12.5 million people are living in meagre conditions. Additionally, 8.5 million people face acute food insecurity due ...
Post a Comment
Read more