ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday summoned Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to appear before the court in person on February 19 in a petition seeking recovery of missing Baloch students.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will conduct hearing of a case related to the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances and a petition seeking recovery of missing Baloch students and the petition seeking recovery of missing Baloch students.
During the hearing, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Usman Ghumman informed the court that one missing student had been recovered and requested the court to postpone the hearing due to the attorney general’s unavailability. However, Justice Kayani expressed his displeasure at the failure of government in recovery of the missing persons and said that the punishment of enforced disappearances should be the death penalty.
He remarked that usually death penalty is awarded once but in these cases, the punishment should be given twice. He added that he was summoning the caretaker prime minister for now and would later also issue directives for the incoming premier to appear before the court. At this, the Assistant Attorney General said that the government needed more time in the case. He further stated that another Baloch missing student had been recovered. Justice Kayani said that he being “generous” is not summoning the director generals of the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence and rejected the AAG’s plea. He also said that PM Kakar must appear in person on Monday at 10 AM, and explain why we should not register a case against him.
The commission was established in 2011 to trace missing persons and fix responsibility on the individuals or organizations responsible for it. In November last year, the IHC 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. Previously, 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 involved in it.
