PHC issues notice to senior officials for wrong info on missing person

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday issued a show-cause notice to the secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and focal person for the missing persons’ cases. They were directed to explain why wrong information was submitted to the court on affidavit about a missing person.

A single-member bench of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued the notice to secretary Home and Tribal Affairs and a focal person for missing persons, Noor Wali. They were asked to explain their position about the statement on the affidavit to the court, in which it was claimed that the missing person was not held by any agency, while he was later found at an internment centre in Swat district.

As per the facts of the case, Abdullah, a relative of a missing person Shafiullah, had filed a writ petition in the high court for his safe recovery from the law-enforcement agencies. To a previous court notice, the secretary Home and Tribal Affairs and focal person for the missing persons submitted a reply on affidavit in the court on December 19, 2017, in which it was stated that the missing person was not held by any law enforcement agency.

Interestingly, father of the missing person on December 27, last year appeared in the court. He informed the court that he had met his son at Paitham Internment Centre in Swat where he had been shifted by the security agencies.

On hearing this, the court took notice as to why the secretary Home and the focal person had made a wrong claim. The current focal person for missing persons, Kamran Khan, submitted before the bench that during submission of the report about the missing person on December 19, 2017, he had not been shifted to the internment centre and that the missing person was shifted to the internment centre on July 17, 2018.

However, the bench asked the focal person to submit a reply by the secretary home and the then focal person with their signatures in the court before the next hearing. The court also disposed of cases of three missing persons, including Mubashir, Safir and Abdul Ghaffar after the lawyers and relatives of missing persons informed that they had returned home safely.

The bench disposed of over 12 cases of the missing persons, including Hafiz Muhammad Karim, Saim Gul and others after submission of the reports by the focal person for missing persons.