After a promise by the officials concerned in the missing persons’ cases, Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Dost Muhammad Khan adjourned the case of every missing person to June 26, with show-cause notices to the heads of spy agencies, military and police officers, for which he would constitute a special division bench.

On May 16, 2012, a division bench headed by the chief justice asked the heads of spy agencies and security forces to notify the shifting of the missing persons to the internment centres or free them if they were not charged to-date.

“I hope my brother will be recovered after the last warning by the PHC chief justice to the agencies to free or notify the missing persons,” said Haji Naseem Gul, whose brother Javed Iqbal, a resident of Kohat, has been missing since 2008.

Narrating his family’s ordeal, he said first the spy agencies picked his brother for investigation. Mentioning the names, the petitioner said two ISI personnel Gul Faraz and Halaqdad had told the family that they were investigating his brother and would free him soon.

In his statement before the court about four days ago, he said his brother was secretly kept in the Kohat Fort.In this case, a division bench headed by the chief justice issued notices to director general Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), secretary defence and the ISI personnel, to produce the missing person in the court on June 26.

Raees Khan, father of the missing Idrees, a resident of Bara, told The News that he was also hopeful of knowing the whereabouts of his son.He claimed in the habeas corpus petition that agencies’ personnel on June 2 picked up his son Idrees and another relative Nazar Jan from the registration office of the internally displaced persons’ camp at Jalozai in Nowshera district and their whereabouts since then were unknown.

Amjad, who also filed a petition in the PHC for safe recovery of his relative Said Khan, said their family members were looking towards the high court only.He said the agencies personnel, with the help of the local police picked Said Khan from Dalazak Road on December 12, 2011 and since then he was untraceable.

The court had also issued notices to director general ISI and capital city police officer to notify the missing person and explain his detention on June 26, the date on which the special bench would take up all the missing persons’ cases.

In the missing persons’ cases, the PHC chief justice had also asked Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to initiate inquiries against officers and soldiers involved in forced disappearances and launch court martial proceedings against those found guilty of picking innocent civilians.