KARACHI, Nov 28: Expressing annoyance on inaction of authorities in the missing persons’ cases, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the newly-appointed defence minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, to ensure the production of 35 missing persons, most of them believed to have been taken away by the Frontier Constabulary, before it on Dec 2.

A visibly irked four-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, came down hard on the defence secretary and directed him to produce all 35 missing persons in court on Friday. The court warned him that FIRs would be registered against responsible officials if the illegally detained persons were not produced.

However, the court gave him extended time on the request of the defence minister after he assured the court of making all-out efforts for locating the missing men and their subsequent production in the court.

The other members of the bench were Justices Jawwad S. Khawaja, Khilji Arif Hussain and Amir Hani Muslim.

The chief justice said the FC had not produced the missing persons despite court orders and remarked that the law-enforcers appeared to have no respect for the court’s directives.

“At least they should have respect for you,” he told the defence minister, adding that his appearance could have been avoided if the FC had produced the detained men.

Justice Chaudhry lamented that orders were sent to the ministry of defence repeatedly since Aug 5, but to no avail.

He observed that if the FC had helped the provincial government in solving the cases of missing persons, the Balochistan chief minister would not have stated that he was helpless.

The bench rejected assertion of the defence secretary that one of the missing persons, Yasin Shah, was not in the custody of any intelligence agency under the administrative control of the ministry.

The chief justice told the defence minister that there was credible information about involvement of FC personnel in the detention of missing persons, including Yasin Shah, whose brother had been attending the apex court’s proceedings in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.

One of the members of the bench remarked that the FC was running a parallel government in Balochistan and was doing whatever they wanted.

“They haven’t released any missing person voluntarily. One was thrown on the street and the other at some desolate place,” he further said. Many of the missing persons were believed to have died, the judge added.

Justice Chaudhry observed that even democratic government had disappointed the people and did not meet their expectations.

The defence minister submitted that it was the commitment of the government to locate each and every missing person.

The chief justice referred to the long march of relatives and families of missing persons from Quetta to Karachi and observed that it had brought a bad name to the country as the march was widely reported by the media.

Karachi suo motu case

Meanwhile, a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to submit a blueprint outlining proposed measures to stop grey trafficking and use of unauthorised SIMs by criminals to commit crimes.

The court was seized with implementation proceedings of the Karachi suo motu judgment case at the Karachi registry.

Justices Jawwad S. Khawaja, Mian Saqib Nisar, Amir Hani Muslim and Ejaz Afzal Khan were other members of the bench.

The court ordered the PTA chief to prepare a comprehensive report after holding a meeting with representatives of cellular companies and police officials.

The PTA chief, Ismail Shah, informed the court that the cellular companies had been directed to issue only five SIMs against one identity card.

He said one cellular company was going to introduce biometric system for issuing SIMs after verification by Nadra.

Mr Shah said that efforts were being made to beat the menace of grey trafficking and added that over 66 grey channels had been seized during raids.

The city police chief, Additional IG Shahid Hayat, said that over 3,000 activated SIMs, along with smuggled activation machines, were seized by police.

The court was of the view that the current registration system was deficient and required to be revised.

The counsel for cellular companies informed the court that his clients were following the standard operating procedure and other directives issued with regard to registration of SIMs and a large number of unregistered SIMs have also been blocked.

The FBR chairman, Tariq Bajwa, placed on record a report showing details of daily clearance of goods from ports along with the record and manifest correspondence.

He submitted that all-out efforts were being made to check tax evasion.

The chief justice directed the FBR chief to bring some improvement in duty collecting system and honest officers to eradicate the menace of tax evasion and smuggling of arms and drugs.

The court directed Attorney General Munir A. Malik and Sindh Advocate General Khalid Javed to go through the report submitted by the FBR and assist the court by suggesting measures to ensure 100 per cent recovery of duty on goods.

The bench rejected the performance report of the Anti-Narcotics Force and directed the officials to go after drug barons instead of arresting vagabond drug addicts.

The hearing will continue on Friday.