PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday summoned the defence and interior secretaries over the failure of the intelligence agencies to file response in the enforced disappearance cases and that of the federal government to disclose performance of the panels overseeing internment centres.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth observed that the officials functioning under the defence and interior ministries had not been complying with its orders issued on the matter on different occasions.

It observed that in several cases, the replies by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or the Military Intelligence (MI) were missing and had not been produced despite the court orders.

The observations were made during the hearing into around 50 habeas corpus petitions regarding enforced disappearances.

Observes officials working under defence, interior ministries defying its orders

The bench fixed June 26 for the next hearing into the cases directing the defence and interior secretaries to appear in person to explain the conduct of the officials functioning under the two ministries.

During the last hearing on May 20, the bench had expressed dissatisfaction about a report produced by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government regarding the functioning of internment centres and had observed that it had also ordered production of a report about the performance of the relevant oversight boards.

It had directed an additional advocate general to produce the reports of the said boards within 15 days.

The bench had also ordered production of the details about internees, especially about when they were shifted to internment centres and what was the current status of their cases.

During the Tuesday hearing, additional attorney general for Pakistan Attique Shah, deputy attorney general Manzoor Khalil, additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad, deputy secretary of home department Usman Zaman and lawyer for the Fata Secretariat additional chief secretary Iqbal Durrani appeared before the bench.

Attique Shah said persons interned in notified centres were no longer missing persons and therefore, their cases could be disposed of.

He said the armed forces were called in aid of the civil power under Article 245 of the Constitution in different conflict areas and that under the said article, the high court didn’t have any jurisdiction in those areas under Article 199.

The additional attorney general said internment centres were set up under two regulations, including Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation for Fata and Pata and that under the said regulations, indemnity had been given to the armed forces as no legal proceedings should lie against any person for anything done or intended to be done in good faith.

He said a request had been filed with the Supreme Court for hearing into missing person cases by a larger bench instead of a two-member bench.

The chief justice observed that it was true that the internees were no longer missing persons but it was necessary to know about the progress in their cases, meetings of oversight boards, and their internment period.

Iqbal Durrani said a meeting of the relevant task force constituted by the Fata Secretariat was scheduled for Tuesday (Jun 10) in accordance with the directives of the high court, where important decisions regarding internment centres would be made.Similarly, Waqar Ahmad and Usman Zaman said the provincial home secretary had convened a meeting on Wednesday of the concerned officials in which the performance of oversight boards and medical facilities provided to internees would be discussed.

Manzoor Khalil said in most cases, the ground check by the agencies was in progress.

The bench observed that in each proceeding on pretext of ground check they request for adjournment of cases for many months but still no progress was visible in these cases. The bench observed that the court needed to know about the progress in these cases.

The bench observed that it would not allow missing persons to rot in internment centres without any progress in their cases.

The chief justice observed that the performance of the oversight boards in these cases was almost zero.

He added that those involved in acts of terrorism should be punished in accordance with law but at the same time innocent persons should be set free.

The chief justice observed that the interning authority was empowered to set free an internee after conducting inquiry and therefore, the internees found innocent should be freed.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2014