ISLAMABAD  -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will resume hearing of a case re­garding the implementation of the recommendations of the Commis­sion of Inquiry on Enforced Disap­pearances and a petition seeking recovery of missing Baloch stu­dents on Tuesday (tomorrow).

A single bench of IHC compris­ing Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will conduct hearing of the petition wherein he previously stressed on the prosecution of the personnel of intel­ligence agencies to resolve the issue of enforced disappearances. The judge had also observed that the enforced disappearance takes place because the state institutions do not believe in the rule of law and emphasized on prosecution of intelligence agencies’ officials allegedly involve in it. During the last hearing, the bench remarked that whether it is difficult for the police if it writes a supplementary statement in the FIR and makes the intelligence officers accused? He added that the time will come when intelligence officers will be prosecut­ed. Justice Kayani said that the prime minister, secretaries of interior and defense must give an affidavit that enforced disappearance will not hap­pen in the future. He added that the police force is the front face of the state not the other institutions.

He further said that the trials of terrorists are held in anti-terrorism courts and if it is forbidden to hold the trial of Baloch extremists in the same courts? He also asked the fed­eral government to restore the anti-terrorism courts in Balochistan to hold trials of the accused and added that the petitioners seeking recovery of missing Baloch students did not want to protect terrorists.

Justice Kayani said that the concept of missing persons is only found in Pakistan and not in other countries. He also expressed his concerns about the well-being of recovered persons. He said that no missing Baloch person has ever come before me after recov­ery … I do not know if the recovered people are fine or not? The IHC judge also inquired from petitioner Maz­ari whether the protest sit-in staged by protesters against enforced dis­appearances is still underway. She informed the court that the Baloch protesters sit-in was still going on and they were being harassed again de­spite court’s directives. Attorney Gen­eral Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan informed the court that the Commis­sion shared a list of 68 Baloch miss­ing students and now, there are only 15 missing persons left. He added that they need two more months to recover the remaining missing per­sons. The bench asked from the AGP that whether the missing persons you have traced, released or reached home and from where you have you traced them? Awan answered that the Interior Ministry and agencies have traced them. Justice Kayani said that enforced disappearances is a reality and it the responsibility of Prime Min­ister to ensure his subordinate agen­cies work within the ambit of law.