KARACHI, Nov 29: Nineteen personnel of a law-enforcement agency who had allegedly taken away 35 detainees were directed by the Supreme Court on Friday to appear before the Balochistan police authorities investigating their disappearance.
A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry hearing the cases of the missing persons at the Karachi registry of the court expressed annoyance over the absence of the inspector general of Frontier Corps Balochistan who had been ordered to appear before the court.
Attorney General Munir A. Malik said the FC chief did not appear because he could not be informed about the court order.
But the chief justice remarked that he had been deliberately avoiding the proceedings because there was credible evidence to establish that the FC personnel were involved in the enforced disappearances.
The court recalled that despite repeated orders, responsible FC officials, including Brig Aurangzeb, Col Naeem and Major Tahir, had not appeared before it.
The chief justice said that a judicial inquiry in a missing person case concluded that FC personnel had picked up Abdul Malik.
“Don’t try to hush up the matter. Those involved will have to be produced for investigation into the matter,” he snapped when the attorney general said the officers named had been repatriated to the army.
The chief justice asked the AG who should be issued contempt notice for not complying with the court’s orders.
The court directed the authorities to ensure the presence of all nominated FC personnel before the DIG of Special Branch, Balochistan, on Sunday for interrogation.
It also directed the Sindh police chief to provide security to the families and relatives of missing persons who had marched to Karachi from Quetta.
The hearing was adjourned to Dec 3.
UNAUTHORISED SIMS: The Supreme Court ordered on Friday that a task force comprising the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman, representatives of cellular companies and officials from police and intelligence agencies be set up to control the use of unauthorised SIM cards.
The order was issued by a five-judge bench comprising the chief justice, Justice Jawwad S. Khuwaja, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan which had taken up the implementation of the court’s judgment in the Karachi law and order case.
The court also ordered the appointment of a commission to ensure 100 per cent recovery of taxes on recommendations submitted by Attorney General Munir A. Malik and Sindh Advocate General Khalid Javed.
The recommendations seek maximum collection of customs duty on imported goods. These include surprise audit/inspection of goods, the duty assessed on goods declaration on any given day or a number of such days and then physical inspection of the goods thus assessed before the goods leave the customs premises.
The chief federal and provincial law officers informed the court that the customs authorities were unable to inspect and verify the content of all containers because of lack of advanced technology and equipment and shortage of manpower.
The court asked them to nominate a judicial, technical and accounting member for the commission and submit a list of other members to the SC registrar before Dec 3.
The advocate general said an effective strategy had been worked out at the highest level to recover illicit arms and ammunition.
The attorney general said details not be disclosed in open court.
Khalid Javed said law-enforcement agencies were obtaining declaration from holders of arms licence that they were not in possession of any unauthorised arms and ammunition.
The court asked him to submit at the next hearing a report on progress made so far to recover arms and ammunition.
Earlier, the PTA chairman informed the court about temporary measures to eradicate the menace of illegal SIM cards. He said not more than two SIMs would be activated on a single mobile phone, while a single user would not be allowed to use more than five SIMs.
In the first stage, he said, cellular companies would ascertain the identity cards against which more than 10 SIMs had been registered. These numbers will be called and asked to keep a maximum of five numbers against one CNIC, while the rest would be blocked.
The PTA chief said import of cellular phones without international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) numbers would not be allowed and it would be possible with the cooperation of the custom authorities.
The court said it would issue appropriate orders to curb the use of unauthorised SIMs after reviewing recommendations of the task force.
The court put off the hearing to a date to be announced by its office after three weeks.