All missing persons will be reunited with their families, AGP assures court

ISLAMABAD: The Attorney General for Pakistan has assured the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that all missing persons will be reunited with their families.

IHC judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued a detailed four-page order regarding the hearing in the missing persons case.

The order incorporated the Attorney General’s undertaking, affirming the commitment to recover all missing individuals.

According to the court order, the Attorney General for Pakistan assured that every missing person would be reunited with their families. He provided this assurance on behalf of the state and law enforcement agencies, highlighting that a ministerial committee on enforced disappearances had formulated recommendations. These recommendations will be presented to the court following cabinet approval.

Also read: Govt to reconstitute committee on issue of missing persons: Law Minister

The order also detailed the formation of a committee comprising the heads of intelligence agencies involved with missing persons.

This committee, proposed by the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau (DGIB) through the Attorney General for Pakistan, received approval.

It may also include officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). Senior officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI), and Intelligence Bureau (IB) are to be appointed as committee members, alongside FIA and CTD representatives.

Furthermore, the Attorney General for Pakistan emphasized that resolving the issue of missing persons necessitates a political solution.

During the proceedings, petitioner lawyer Iman Hazir Mazari submitted a list of three missing students to the Attorney General for Pakistan, who promised to provide updates on their status.

The high vourt’s order concluded with the Attorney General for Pakistan’s assurance that the matter of missing persons is being addressed at the highest levels to ensure a permanent resolution.

The Islamabad High Court’s Order

Learned Attorney General for Pakistan alongwith officials of the respondents’ put appearance and has submitted a response to this Court pursuant to the order dated 24.04.2024 passed by this Court and explained the point of view by highlighting the Baloch military organization in detail and actions taken by the law enforcement agencies. However, to the extent of questions framed by this Court in the previous order required to be answered in a categorical manner, the Attorney General contends that the detailed answer would be submitted before the next date of hearing and he also undertakes on behalf of the State as well as the law enforcement agencies that every person who has allegedly been disappeared or is missing will be reunited with his family.

He further contends that the ministerial committee on enforced disappearances has prepared their recommendations and summary will be placed in the next Cabinet Committee meeting to resolve the issue, which requires political solution.  

At this stage, the learned counsel for the petitioner has pointed out Para 28 of the Commission report which is as under:- ‘That the creation of multiple structures by the government, directly or indirectly (on the directions of courts) in the form of commissions, cabinet sub-committee and parallel functioning of various human rights organizations under the rubric of enforced disappearances has led to overlapping of mandate and exhaustion of resources without any meaningful and tangible outcome towards resolution of this critical issue.’

Learned counsel for the petitioner while referring the para 28 of the Commission report highlights that certain issues are overlapping by constitution of different committees but results are not achieved. She also refers the case of Feroz Ahmed the subject matter of W.P.No.2243 of 2022 where his father Noor Bakhsh appeared in the Court and highlighted agony and the mental torture suffered by him as well as other family members since 2022 when his son a student 17 years of age was disappeared from Rawalpindi who is still missing. Learned counsel further referred the case of Naeem s/o Rehmat who as per the information given by the Attorney General in the Court is allegedly serving the sentence in Central Prison, Karachi but after the verification by the family the person who is serving the sentence is different having a similar name and credentials, therefore, the alleged detenu Naeem s/o Rehmat is still missing.

She also highlights non-compliance of para 5 of the last order in which the case of Sohail Ahmed was referred whereby the learned Attorney General contends that there is some delay on the part of his office in compliance of the order especially when he requires a detailed check from the concerned quarters, therefore, he once again requested the petitioner’s counsel to handover the detail of person, which was handed over to the learned Attorney General by the petitioner’s counsel Ms. Imaan Zainab Hazir Advocate with the expectation that proper whereabouts would be provided on the next date of hearing to the extent of these three individuals.

 Learned Attorney General has also pointed out that this Court has also constituted a members committee comprising of D.G IB, D.G ISI and D.G MI but there are certain administrative difficulties in coordination as highlighted by D.G IB who has made request through Attorney General that Joint Director General may be appointed as convener and request has been made that permission may be granted to co-opt the members of other law enforcement agencies including CTD and FIA in the said working for true identification and recovery of the alleged persons who were victim of enforced disappearances.

Keeping in view the request made by the learned Attorney General the order, dated 19.02.2024 is amended to the extent that all the law enforcement agencies including ISI, MI & IB can involve their second highest level officials for achieving the mandate highlighted in the Commission’s report pursuant to the order of this Court and any other official of CTD, FIA may also be co-opted in this regard, if so desired by the Committee.

The learned Attorney General contends that he has now taken certain measures to settle this longstanding issue with the highest offices and he assured this Court that the recommendation given by the Cabinet on the ministerial committee on enforced disappearance will be shared with this court, which would be considered as way forward in future. In view of these undertakings, the matter is adjourned to 14.06.2024 for further proceedings.