Supreme Court summons CM Balochistan in missing persons’ case

The Supreme Court of Pakistan said that it was not helpless in getting its decisions implemented, summoning Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and Home Minister Mir Zafarullah Zerhi and ISI’s sector in-charge during hearing on cases relating to the missing persons.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing on  a petition on the law and order situation in Balochistan, issues of missing persons and dumping of bullet-riddled corpses.

During the 15-hour hearing of the case, Justice Tariq Pervez said the Supreme Court was not helpless, adding that if the federal agencies were not obeying the federal and provincial governments, then the system had failed.

Despite the strict directives by the bench, the authorities concerned failed to present 12 people who had disappeared from Quetta and Totak area of Khuzdar.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry remarked, “The chief minister, Balochistan, and home minister will have to assure the Supreme Court that under Article 9 of the Constitution, complete protection to life and property of people will be ensured by the government; besides that neither any citizen will be lifted or kidnapped nor any incident of killing and throwing of bullet-riddled bodies of missing persons will take place”.

The court was surprised that no-one was ready to take responsibility of people’s security; he said adding the provincial authorities had been living in Islamabad instead of Quetta. He asked the authorities concerned to be in the provincial metropolis.

The Chief Justice noted that seven or eight secret agencies were working in the province but the federal government was not paying attention to the issue of restoring peace which had become a matter of great concern in Balochistan.

He commented, “Among the senior authorities of the province, only the chief secretary is present in the court, while the governor and chief minister are out of the province despite the very serious law and order situation”.

In quite clear words, the chief justice said all relevant officials would have to submit before the court that they had failed to fulfill their responsibilities of providing security and protection to people, if they failed to recover the missing persons.

The province was burning, the people were being whisked away, decomposed bodies were being recovered and members of the Shia community were being targeted, he added. Regretting that people were being kidnapped for ransom, he said that ministers were also involved in such heinous crimes.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=21308

Posted by Faisal Farooq on May 3 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.