Missing persons' relatives stage protest camp outside Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD For the early recovery of their dear ones, relatives of missing persons staged a protest camp outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan for indefinite period here on Tuesday. According to the details, a delegation of the missing persons relatives earlier had met with the SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain for fixing the case of their dear ones. Amina Masood Janjua, Chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, briefed the media persons regarding their meeting with Dr Faqir. She informed that they would continue their protest till the fixing of missing persons case. To a query, she said that it was equal for them to live on roads or homes without their dear ones. She said that there were so many cases awaiting justice, which were pending in the SC as review petitions were filed against the decisions of the army courts. She urged the SC to taken up the cases of the missing persons pending since November 3, 2007. She said that hearing should be fixed immediately considering the seriousness of the issue and grave violations of the fundamental and international human rights laws. It is pertinent to mention here that while marching from the Parliament House towards the Supreme Court to observe the November 3 as black day, a large number of parliamentarians also visited the relatives of missing persons camp to show solidarity with them. Amna Janjua was of the view that Parliament could not play decisive role for the recovery of illegal detained citizens, adding that the apex court was last ray of hope for them. She argued that however, the Parliament House unanimously passed a resolution for the release of Dr Aafia from the US prison but it could not happen yet. We met with Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani in this regard but despite that our miseries could not be resolved, relatives of missing persons regretted. Amna said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had set a deadline earlier to recover the missing persons but their dear ones are yet to be recovered.

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