Ministries put on notice in missing persons cases

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday put on notice the ministries of defence and interior in 22 fresh cases of missing persons from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan issued the notice to the ministries concerned. The court directed the ministries to submit detailed replies on behalf of the intelligence agencies before the next hearing. Salma Bibi and 21 others relatives of missing persons had filed fresh cases in the high court for safe recovery of their near and dear ones from the custody of the security agencies.
The petitioners claimed that they were picked up by the law enforcement agencies and they were untraceable to date. The bench also directed Peshawar commissioner to submit oversight board report on an internee, Zamin Gul, who has been shifted to the internment centre Fort Salop in Khyber Agency, before the next hearing.
Additional Advocate General, Manzoor Khalil, Additional Advocate General Qaiser Ali Shah and Iqbal Durrani, legal advisor of political administration, appeared in the cases. The bench also disposed of one missing person case, after the AAG Qaiser Ali Shah informed the bench that the detainee Hashim had been declared as ‘black’.
The bench also issued directives to in-charge internment centre to provide medical treatment to the internee after his mother Shahi Gula informed the bench that her son was a serious TB patient.