The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday ordered the formation of a committee comprising the heads of the country’s intelligence agencies to investigate the case of missing Baloch students. The court also summoned caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, defense and interior ministers, and the Islamabad police chief for the next hearing on February 28.
The case was filed in 2022 by the families of the missing students, who alleged that they were abducted by the state agencies. The court was hearing a petition on the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, which was formed in 2011 to trace missing persons and hold the perpetrators accountable.
The court had previously summoned Kakar on November 29 and January 10, but he did not show up. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who was presiding over the case, expressed his displeasure over the absence of the prime minister and the ministers. He said that the court wanted to know why the state’s premier was failing in his duties.
He also said that the court had not received any documents or information from the government in the past two years. He noted that the commission had reported that out of 50 missing persons, 22 had been recovered, while the whereabouts of 28 others were still unknown. He said that none of the missing persons had any criminal or terror charges against them.
He further said that the court had charges against the institutions involved in enforced disappearances. He said that the punishment for such a crime should be the death penalty. He also said that he would form a committee comprising the heads of the ISI, MI, and IB to investigate the matter.
Justice Kayani said that no one was above the law and that the law was binding on everyone. He said that everyone was laughing at the state of affairs and that he was ashamed of what was happening. He said that he would deal with the Islamabad IG and the CTD in charge separately and that they had to provide protection to the people.
The court then directed the defense secretary to brief the officials concerned about the proceedings. It ordered the attorney general to brief the DGs of the three intelligence agencies. It also ordered the attorney general to submit a list of the missing who had allegedly gone missing recently. It adjourned the hearing till February 28 and asked the prime minister and the ministers to appear before the court on the next date.
Justice Kayani said he was not summoning any elected prime minister as he would start the case afresh after a new government was sworn in. He said that the caretaker prime minister should not go to Karachi at the next hearing and should appear before the high court. He said that the interim premier was not a full-time premier and that coming to the court was not an issue.
The court also referred to a report published by a non-governmental organization (NGO) Defence of Human Rights (DHR) in December last year, which said that Pakistan reported 51 more cases of enforced disappearances in 2023. The report said that the total number of cases stood at 3,120, with 595 individuals released, 246 traced, and 88 extrajudicially killed.