QUETTA: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Thursday ordered the Balochistan Inspector General Tariq Omer Khitab to produce two abducted persons, Mehmoodul Hasan and Attaur Rehman, within a week and remarked that he should personally recover them.
The CJ was hearing the missing persons’ case at the Supreme Court Quetta Registry for the fourth consecutive day. He was heading a three-member bench.
When the deputy attorney general submitted that Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf would visit Quetta especially for the missing persons’ case, the chief justice remarked that it was the kindness of the prime minister and at least somebody had started looking after Balochistan.
He observed that the police had completely failed to establish law and order in Balochistan where their write was zero and that most of crimes occurred in police-controlled areas.
When the CJ remarked that there was evidence of FC hand in the disappearances, Raja Irshad, counsel for FC, denied this, saying not a single missing person was in FC custody. The chief justice said there was proof of FC’s involvement, citing the report of the Noshki sessions judge in this regard.
“What other inquiry do you need in this regard (in the presence of the sessions judge’s inquiry report)?” the CJ said. “Colonel Aurangzeb had also appeared in the inquiry. The people are missing, so you should recover them. Do you want your officers arrested and produced before the magistrate?” the chief justice asked the FC lawyer.
He also asked the FC’s lawyer not to make the missing persons issue about egos. “We do not need statements, we need a stance. Neither the IG FC nor the DIG have appeared in the court. They do not give any importance to the court,” the CJ added. He said all matters should be settled and resolved.
Justice Khilji said every person was sleeping under a blanket, adding that he had wept once in 1971 and he had no more courage to weep again.
During the hearing, parents of one Muhammad Hussain requested the chief justice to help recover their son, alleging that the sitting provincial home minister was involved in the kidnapping.
However, the lawyer of the home minister denied the allegation. The chief justice said: “If the home minister is not involved in the case, why has his challan been made? If the case was false, the FIR should have been cancelled. And if the case is right, let’s proceed with it.”Later, the hearing was adjourned till today (Friday).