PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the federal government’s failure to produce a report compiled by the task force on missing persons and directed a deputy attorney general to produce the same within a month.

Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Ikramullah Khan also directed deputy attorney general Farooq Shah to conduct proper ground check about the missing persons, whose petitions are pending with it.

The bench was hearing around 110 habeas corpus petitions filed by relatives of missing persons, mostly alleging that their relatives were in the custody of security forces and law enforcement agencies.

It fixed the next hearing into the petitions for March 18.

Deputy attorneys general Farooq Shah and Manzoor Khalil appeared for the federal government, while additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan represented the provincial government.

At the start of the proceedings, Mr Farooq Shah informed the court that eight detainees had recently been shifted to the notified internment centres, whereas the authorities had been conducting ground check for the rest of the missing persons.

He requested the bench to give the federal government more time for completing the ground check, saying it will help produce proper information.

Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk observed that on the pretext of ground check, the government had been playing tricks on the court.

He observed that neither detainees had been shifted to internment centres nor had the report of the task force been submitted to the court despite passage of three months.

The chief justice questioned what the relatives of missing persons would think that the rule of jungle persisted in the country.

He asked when the missing persons were not with the intelligence agencies, then where they had vanished.

The bench asked the officials how the issue would be resolved when out of hundreds of missing persons, few were sent to internment centres on the court’s pressure.

It observed that the officials had constantly been seeking more time but no noteworthy progress had been taking place.

During one of the previous hearings in Nov last year, the court had ordered a DAG to produce detailed report compiled by the task force on missing persons.

However, the said report has not been submitted until now.

NON-PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION: The bench also sought explanation from the additional chief secretary of the Fata Secretariat regarding non-payment of compensation to legal heirs of two missing persons whose bodies were later on dumped in tribal areas.Riazatul Haq, lawyer for petitioner Yousaf Shah, said his client’s son, Amjid Khan, was taken away along with his uncle, Said Khan, in the jurisdiction of Pahari Pura police station on Dec 12, 2012.

He said since the two were taken into custody, their whereabouts were not known.

A few months ago, he had said the bodies of the two persons were dumped in Khyber Agency near Peshawar.

The lawyer said the court had earlier ordered the political agent of Khyber Agency to pay compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased persons. However, he added that the authorities had been delaying the issue.

A special prosecutor of the political agent informed the bench that they had already prepared the case for payment of the compensation and it now needed approval of the concerned officials.

The bench directed the additional chief secretary to file explanation on the matter besides informing the court about steps taken so far for the purpose.