Supreme Court of Pakistan. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court asked the provincial governments on Thursday to honour the command of the Constitution as enshrined in the 18th Amendment and immediately announce schedules for local bodies’ elections. It also ordered the release of three missing persons who were produced before the court. They had been picked up from their houses in Quetta.

“There should be no excuse as the Constitution admits no explanation,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who heads a three-judge bench hearing a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in Balochistan. The petition was filed by Hadi Shakeel, former president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association.

The chief justice asked why the provincial governments were not adhering to the Constitution. He suggested that local bodies’ elections should be held under the existing ordinance if new laws were not ready.

The court asked the chief secretaries of the four provinces to consult their governments and inform it at the next hearing in Quetta on Dec 30 about their decisions.

At the last hearing on March 22, the court had stressed the need for mobilising the local government system in Balochistan to improve the law and order situation.

Local government elections have not been held since the expiry of their tenure in September 2009.

The Punjab government said it might hold the elections by August 10.

Balochistan and Sindh governments said in their reports that local government elections were not possible unless the Election Commission prepared new electoral rolls. They said the law and order situation in their provinces was not conducive to holding elections.

The chief justice observed that six by-elections on the basis of fresh electoral rolls had been held and schedules had been announced for more elections in different constituencies to be held on April 26.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq was of the opinion that local government elections would help decentralise power under the 18th Amendment. “Elections empower people to play a pivotal role in resolving local problems by bridging the gap between the people and the authorities concerned,” the chief justice observed.

DETAINED PERSONS: Advocate General of Balochistan Amanullah Kinrani and DIG (operations) Qazi Abdul Wahid produced before the court the three missing persons, Mir Jan, Amir Khan and Gul Mir, all residents of Sariab road area of Quetta. The court set them at liberty.

They informed the court that they had been forcibly taken away at night from their houses, blindfolded and kept in custody for about 40 days. However, they said, they did not know where they were detained. They were abandoned in Khuchlak area where police took them into custody.

DIG Kinrani had no answer when asked if these persons were involved in any crime, but said they had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order. “We fail to understand the excuses being given by the advocate general of Balochistan,” the chief justice said, adding that police or any other agency had no authority to detain these persons without mentioning their arrests in a particular case and obtaining their remands from the court of law.

The court noted that the statement of Acting DIG (investigation) Balochistan Hamid Shakeel about the recovery of these missing persons appeared to be unbelievable and observed that prima facie they had been recovered from some particular place, but the names of agencies/authorities who had kept them in custody were not being disclosed.

“Also it cannot be ruled out that perhaps they were detained by police who kept them without any legal justification and after directions by this court, they have been released on the pretext that they were missing. Otherwise, in such a situation they should have disclosed the particulars of the agencies/persons who have been curtailing the liberty of these persons as well as four other persons who were recovered on the last date of hearing,” the court said.

The court directed Acting DIG Shakeel to appear in person on Friday to explain from which area these persons had been recovered.

About the confinement of Hafiz Saeed-ur-Rehman, DIG Kinrani said, he was informed that the man had not been kept in Gujranwala jail, adding that the National Crises Management Cell had provided wrong information in this regard. The matter was, however, being investigated, he added.