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Trace missing persons, SC tells govt

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the interior secretary, the Punjab provincial police officer (PPO) and the Islamabad inspector general to step up efforts to tracing missing persons, particularly Masood Janjua, a businessman from Rawalpindi.

The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Rahmat Hussain, summoned the law enforcement officers in response to a protest camp set up outside the Supreme Court by relatives of the missing persons.

Masood’s wife, Amina Janjua, had set up the camp three days ago on the Constitution Avenue, demanding her husband’s recovery. Masood disappeared on July 30, 2005 while en route to Peshawar.

During the proceedings, the CJ observed that law enforcement agencies had not heard the grievances of the missing persons’ reltaives despite the protest. On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman, Islamabad IG Kaleem Imam and the Punjab PPO appeared in the court on notice. The court directed them to submit a report by 1pm the same day.

Imam assured the court that police would do all they could to recover Masood, adding he had been holding talks with the businessman’s wife and the protest camp would be removed soon.

The CJ said the court had asked for addressing Amina’s grievance and not for removing the camp.

Later, the interior secretary presented a report, stating that cases of 416 missing persons were pending in the SC since September 2006. He said the Interior Ministry was doing everything possible to recover them and told the court that 241 missing persons had already been recovered.

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