SC told commission on missing persons faces challenges

ISLAMABAD: The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has informed the Supreme Court that it has issued 744 production orders, out of which 52 have been implemented by the addressees, while the remaining 692 production orders are yet to be executed by the quarters concerned.

In pursuance of the directives issued by the Supreme Court, the commission submitted province-wise details of the cases in which production orders were issued but not implemented, indicating that 503 (72.68pc) out of 692 such cases pertain to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This is evidently due to the decade-long insurgency and war-like situation in the province, coupled with the deaths of unknown persons in drone attacks and migration to other countries without informing their families.

The court was informed that the commission had also received 182 petitions from the quarters concerned requesting a review of the production orders in these cases. Regarding pending cases, the court was informed that 260 missing persons cases from Punjab, 163 from KP are pending with the commission, while 468 from Balochistan and 55 from Islamabad are also pending. Additionally, 15 cases from Azad Kashmir are pending with the commission.

The commission also provided the court with details regarding the date of appointment of members of the commission and their monthly remuneration. The court was informed that Justice Javed Iqbal (former Judge of the Supreme Court) was appointed chairman of the commission on September 26, 2011, with a monthly salary of Rs674,000. Justice Zia Pervaiz, member (former judge of the Sindh High Court), was appointed on July 1, 2021, with a salary package of Rs829,000. Similarly, Justice Aman Ullah Khan, member (former chief justice of the Balochistan High Court), was appointed on December 4, 2023, on a salary of Rs1,139,251, while Muhammad Sharif Virk, member (IGP retired), was appointed on March 13, 2011, with a monthly salary of Rs263,326.

The total remuneration of the staff was Rs2,906,452. The remuneration of the chairman and members of the commission is fixed under the summary approved by the prime minister vide Dy. No. 3275 PSPM dated September 23, 2011, read with President Order No. 2 of 1997, which provides that the salary and allowances of the chairman and members of the commission will be the same as those of a sitting judge of the high court or Supreme Court of Pakistan, as the case may be. The commission, however, submitted that to ensure less burden on the government exchequer, Justice Javed Iqbal, chairman, is receiving a salary of Rs674,000 per month, which was fixed on September 26, 2011. Moreover, he did not receive remuneration as the chairman of the commission during the five years he served as the chairman of NAB and saved more than Rs50 million.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, had sought a comprehensive report from the federal government on the production orders issued by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances of Missing Persons.