PHC to hear, dispose of 10 missing persons cases in a week

 New procedure unveiled

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a new procedure for disposal of hundreds of missing persons cases, declaring that only 10 cases would be heard and disposed of on a weekly basis and no further delay would be acceptable in submission of replies.

A division bench headed by the Chief Justice designate Justice Yahya Afridi passed these directions in the missing persons cases. Taking notice of the years and months long delay in submission of replies by the ministries of Interior and Defence on behalf of the agencies working under the ministries and Home and Tribal Affairs Department, the chief justice passed an order that from now on the court would hear 10 cases only on weekly basis for disposal. It directed the law-enforcing agencies to ensure submission of replies on time and without any delay.

Justice Yahya Afridi observed that presently modern techniques were being used in the departments and delaying tactics in submitting reply would not be accepted. The bench was hearing 68 cases of missing persons. In majority of the cases replies were not submitted on behalf of the ministries concerned and Home department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa even after years.

The bench fixed the next dates for hearing of the cases in the months of January, February and March of 2017. The court also urged the law officers, including Deputy Attorney General Musarratullah Khan and Additional Advocate General Qaiser Ali Shah to ensure replies in the cases on time.

During hearing, Ismail Khan, lawyer for the missing person, Khan Zeb, submitted that one year had passed and despite repeated notices the respondent agencies did not submit report on his whereabouts.

Shaoqi Khan, father of the missing person and a resident of Khyber Agency, claimed his son was picked up by the law-enforcing agencies some two years ago and his whereabouts were not known.

On the other hand, hundreds of missing persons cases including those shifted to various internment centres of the province and Fata were running the high court since years. Due to delay in replies and simply adjournment in these cases, the relatives of missing persons have also lost their interest in regular appearing in the cases.

In most of cases, the lawyers were also not appearing in the cases due to long delay in disposal of missing persons cases. However, the deputy attorney general claimed that he had ensured record disposal of the cases when he started appearing in the cases on behalf of the ministries concerned. He said that majority of the cases were disposed of after the court received replies from the ministries concerned and provincial government, which stated that they did not know whereabouts of the missing persons.