ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction over a report submitted by the Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif before it which listed details of missing persons and ordered the production of 14 of the 35 missing persons in court tomorrow and the remaining on Dec 9, DawnNews reported.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing over the missing persons case.
During the hearing, Khawaja Asif submitted a report containing the details of the 35 missing persons, according to which seven persons were released, another two had died and only two persons were held up in detention centres, whereas out of the remaining, three were present in Waziristan region, another went to Saudi Arabia and eight crossed the border into neighbouring Afghanistan.
The details of seven persons were unknown, the report added.
The defence minister was asked about the status of missing persons, Yasin Shah, to which he replied that his details were not known.
Earlier this week, the court was provided with details of five of the other missing persons, according to which two had died of natural causes whereas three others had been traced during a ground check.
Moreover, Khawaja told the court today that none of the missing persons were within the custody of the Armed forces, upon which the chief justice observed that proof of handing over of the missing persons to the Army was available.
Chief Justice Iftikhar furthermore inquired as to how the 35 persons who were picked up together by military personnel manage to get dispersed.
He remarked that the information provided to the court was merely speculation and ordered the production of all missing persons in court.
The Chief Justice added that as per the Constitution of Pakistan, no persons could be detained without being produced in court first. He also inquired as to under which law was a detention centre set up in Malakand division which is a settled area of the country adding that a detention centre could not be constructed there.
Justice Iftikhar instructed for 14 of the missing persons, which included the seven released persons and other seven whose details were not available or were kept in detention centres, to be produced in the chambers of Justice Amir Hani tomorrow at 9:30 am.
He added that the heirs of the 14 persons and those who had died in custody should also be present in the chambers.
He further summoned those military officers, who had taken away the 35 missing persons, to record their statement in front of the bench. The Superintendent of Malakand Internment Centre, Ataullah, was also summoned to appear with all relevant record of the detainees at the internment centre.
The heirs and the Superitendant would help identify the missing persons whereas the heirs of the deceased would be able to get a postmortem conducted if they opted to.
The bench adjourned the next hearing over the case until Dec 9 and said that a verdict would be issued on the case the same day.