Kakar appears before IHC in Baloch missing persons case, says political parties should work on solving issue – Pakistan

Table of Contents

After being summoned for a third time, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday finally appeared before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a case pertaining to missing Baloch students.

During the hearing, which was presided over by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Kakar said that the issue should be solved by the country’s “major political parties” as the incoming government would have the powers to legislate on the issue.

Justice Kayani had resumed hearing a petition regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. At the previous hearing, he had remarked that the “purpose of summoning the prime minister was to inquire why the state’s premier is failing in his duties.”

The commission was established in 2011 to trace missing persons and fix responsibility on the individuals or organisations responsible for it.

The IHC had previously summoned PM Kakar on Nov 29. After he had failed to appear before the court, it 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.

During the Nov 29 hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan had informed the court that out of 50 missing persons, 22 had been recovered, while the whereabouts of 28 others were still unknown.

On January 10, Justice Kayani had remarked that a day would come when intelligence officials would also be held accountable and face prosecution for cases. In a subsequent hearing, he had summoned PM Kakar for a second time, observing: “The punishment of enforced disappearances should be the death penalty.”

However, the caretaker premier had again failed to show up on February 19 and was summoned for a third time today.

The court had also issued directives for constituting a joint committee of directors general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Service Intelli­gence (ISI), and Military Intelli­gence (MI) for tracing the whereabouts of students from Balochistan who are allegedly missing.

On Tuesday, the federal government had approached the IHC seeking to overturn the order.

Today, Kakar and interim interior minister Gohar Ejaz appeared before the IHC. Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan and human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari also appeared before the court.

Source Link

Website | + posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content