Missing persons case: SHC directs interior secretary to submit details of internment centres in KP

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday took notice of the federal interior ministry’s failure to comply with court orders regarding filing of details of persons detained in the internment centres. The high court also issued a notice to the interior secretary, telling him to appear before court along with the list of all the internment centres and people detained therein. Hearing petitions against the non-recovery of missing persons, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the interior ministry had failed to place on record details of such internment centres in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa (KP) and each person detained in them or at minimum confirm that no missing person whose case was pending before the court was held in such centres. The SHC directed the interior secretary to appear before the court along with the list of all the internment centres and all the persons detained therein or at minimum with a statement naming all the internment centres in KP with information that no missing persons whose cases were pending before the court were held in those internment centres. The high court observed that the interior secretary continued not to comply with the orders of the court and the court had taken notice of his lack of interest in compliance with the court orders, and might take necessary measures against him under the law. In another petition against the detention of a man, Mohammad Ashraf Memon, the SHC was informed by the commissioner of inquiry on enforced disappearance that the missing person was under trial in a military court. The petitioner’s counsel, Mohammad Farooq, submitted that since the military courts had been abolished, the petitioner should be informed where the man had been detained. The court directed the federal and provincial law officer to file comments on where the detainee was being kept.