ISLAMABAD - The federal government submitting the list of internment centres and names of its in-charges Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that 516 persons are detained in the five internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja heading a three-member bench directed the attorney general office to arrange meeting of Nargis Bibi and Ziaullah with their brothers ‘at all costs.’
Nargis’ brother Imdad Hussain has been missing from DI Khan for the last one-and-half-year and, according to the list, is detained at internment centre Lakki Marwat, while Ziaullah’s brother Fasihullah has also been missing for the last one year. The bench also comprised Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Ejaz Afzal is hearing the cases of disappeared persons on daily basis in the ongoing year.
Additional Attorney General Tariq Nawaz Khokar on behalf of the Federation submitted the list of the missing persons detained in the internment centres and names of in-charge of those centers. Justice Jawwad said the list was provided after warnings. “Now we would see who is the commandants of the centres.”
The court also asked him to provide details of cases related to disappeared persons pending in the Supreme Court, high and lower courts and in the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED).
According to the list provided by attorney general office there are seven centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including sub-jail Palthom, Swat, sub-jail Fizagat, Swat, sub-jail Malakand, District Jail Timergara (not functional), Frontier Corps Forts for Chitral, Drosh, Mirkhani and Timergara (not functional), District Jail Lakki Marwat and District Jail Kohat.
Rizwan Shah is in-charge of internment centre Malakand, Ayub Bacha of Palthom, Swat, Yousaf Gul of Fizagat, Swat, Sabz Ali of Lakki Marwat and Muhammad Irsahd is in-charge of internment centre Kohat.
The attorney general office provided to media only the list of district and sub-jails in KPK where 514 missing persons are detained, but didn’t disclose the names of the forts where too the enforced disappeared persons have been kept.
Chairperson Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, Amna Masood Janjua, told The Nation that she had provided the list of 84 missing persons who are kept in the internment centres. She also said that these 514 missing persons are in addition to 749 missing persons, whose list she had already presented to the court.
During the proceeding, Justice Jawwad warned that now there should be no laxity of law. He stated when the federal government did not make any progress then the Supreme Court had to issue orders. Justice Khilji inquired from the deputy attorney general what were the difficulties in arranging the meeting of missing persons with their relatives. Justice Jawwad said that disappearance of even a person was serious matter. He said that most of the people in the list seemed to be from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The judge said: “We would tally the names in the lists with the Amna Masood Janjua’s list and the CIED report.
Additional Advocate General Faisal Malik informed the court that the Punjab government had decided to initiate proceeding against Army officer involved in case of Amna Masood Janjua’s missing spouse Masood Janjua in the light of Dr Imran Munir’s statement given to the joint investigation team in 2009.
Onset of the hearing Attorney General Munir A Malik informed that he had met with the defence secretary and advocate generals of all provinces in offices and the secretary had extended full support for the recovery of missing persons.
The hearing of the case is adjourned till today (Wednesday).