Illegal detainees

[Leader]

The CJ's priorities are correct - the government and various civilian institutions need to be made effective and de-politicized on a priority basis.

Only when the government and law enforcement institutions are reformed and start performing their jobs will they receive public support and be able to enforce their SOLE right to enforce law and order.

Currently every thug and powerful institution gets to do whatever they like because the government and law enforcement are pretty much non-existent.

Think about it, if the government was functioning properly and the Attorney General and Law Enforcement institutions were de-politicized, would they have not already raised this issue in the courts and tried to recover these people?

Why does the CJ have to take Suo Moto notice? Why were these cases not already being pursued?

It is because the government is broken and corrupt and therefore has no standing to challenge other powerful institutions that are also engaging in allegedly unlawful activities.

The whole system is broken, and until we start fixing the CORE of the system, the government and various law enforcement and judicial institutions, the rest of the system will be impossible to reform and fix.

that is bench mark, however, priority that you set for CJ is not, as ALL EQUAL before LAW. So one person doing things wrong, doesnot entitle the other to do the same...

 

[salmakh84]

I hope this salmakh AQ sympathizer shows the same outrage over his scumbag friends blowing innocent Pakistanis to death, it is thanks to Intel that the mainland has seen a dramatic decline in suicide bombings.

yes, I shows the same outrage when a suicide bomber blows up at a shrine or market etc. (not necessarily an AQ scumbag.) Innocent blood is NOT to be spilled. But not when "security forces or politicians" allied to the american war are killed. There is a difference.

Now that drones are up again, and NATO supplies are resuming (the road ones, air was already open), we'll see how "dramatic" this decline in bombing remains. One drone creates many bombers. Not all are rational thinkers

 

[salmakh84]

This Umar Cheema seems a brave guy. He still writes for the missing persons despite being tortured by ISI.

--


Missing persons finally see some light at the end of tunnel


Umar Cheema
Saturday, February 11, 2012


ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday rekindled hope among the families whose relatives are dying a slow death in ISI’s custody. Hapless and clueless, they had been running from pillar to post in search of justice after four of the 11 detainees died in the agency’s custody.

Friday’s proceedings brought some respite for them and restlessness for the captors. Other than the national media, correspondents of foreign media were present in large number in the courtroom, taking this as a test case for the judiciary.

As the three-member bench started hearing under the leadership of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Raja Irshad, the ISI-MI lawyer, had to face embarrassment he was not ready for.

With straight dyed hair neatly parted from the middle, sporting a beard and dressed in Jinnah style Sherwani, Raja was there but empty-handed. The prisoners that had to be produced were nowhere in sight, a blatant violation of the directive that earned him fury of the court.

“I say where are the prisoners?” asked the CJ as Raja Irshad tried to flip-flop. The bench was in no mood to tolerate a violation of its order. “Name the authority who dared to violate the court’s directive,” said the CJ. If a prime minister can be summoned for contempt of court, no one else must be under any illusion, he said.

As Raja continued speaking without improving the quality of argument, he received another shut-up call from the CJ: “Don’t speak at this high pitch. We can do that louder than you.”

Sitting on the left of Justice Chaudhry was Justice Tariq Pervaiz, former Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court, no stranger to the occurrence of alleged abductions by intelligence agencies, especially in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“It was distressing to watch CNN documenting the miseries of families of missing persons,” he remarked. The ISI lawyer couldn’t get his word and asked for repeating it. CNN is a TV channel, Justice Tariq Pervaiz said educating Raja Irshad. The channel has run a programme last night, he explained, that could only bring a bad name for us as the cases of forced disappearance are on the rise without any arrest of this trend.

Justice Tariq also regretted the happenings in Balochistan. Due to our failure in controlling the situation in this restive province, Justice Tariq remarked, the situation has caught international attention resulting in US Congressional hearing.

On the CJ’s right side sat Justice Arif Khilji, equally upset like his peers on this lawlessness and contemptuous disregard for the court’s directives. He asked the ISI lawyer the reason behind non-production of the prisoners. Raja Irshad said four of them were too ill to travel. “Why are you worried when the lawyer of ailing prisoners has no objection to their transportation?”

“He is the lawyer of only two prisoners,” Raja Irshad said in reference to Tariq Asad, advocate, who represents Abdul Basit and his brother; the third brother has already died in detention.

The CJ interrupted at this point. If Tariq is the lawyer of two prisoners, the court is here to take care of all, so none would face injustice. “Produce them today. We can wait even till 7pm,” the CJ warned the ISI lawyer, rejecting his flimsy excuses. “My Lordship, three of them are in internment centre in Parachinar; another four in a Peshawar hospital.” Airlift them, the CJ responded, saying he won’t tolerate any further delay and the court was adjourned for the Friday prayers.

As the bench resumed hearing in the afternoon, one noticed the heat being felt by the powerful quarters. Evidence of that was the transportation through road of the prisoners detained at the Parachinar’s internment centre. They couldn’t be airlifted due to bad weather, a fact verified from the Met Office. The remaining four admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, were released for shifting to Islamabad’s PIMS.

However, Raja Irshad, so much grilled in the first session, did not have the courage to face the court as their presence couldn’t have been ensured with weather conspiring in favour of his client, though for a day. He sent his response through the attorney general who told the court that the detainees are being transported but could not reach within the office timing.

The CJ didn’t issue a clean chit, however. He expressed his displeasure by putting on notice secretary defence for the next hearing. Justice Chaudhry didn’t forget to remind that others could also be summoned if the need arose. He, however, mentioned in the court order that DG ISI, DG MI and JAG branch have failed to comply with the court’s order, thus dangling a sword over their heads for a possible summon in this respect.

 

[Jango]

It was interesting to see police man in the video of the prisoners in lady reading hospital. So, why does not the police also get involved in it?

 

[salmakh84]

Adiala missing prisoners’ case: After a heart-wrenching sight, SC wants answers

ISLAMABAD:
Everyone in the jam-packed courtroom number 1 was dumbfounded when authorities escorted them inside — each of the seven surviving detainees holding urine bags in their hands.
Frail, weak, unable to talk and walk properly, the physical condition of the once missing prisoners – brought before the Supreme Court on Monday by the country’s top spy agencies – seemed abysmal.
Four of his fellow detainees have already died in custody.

As the prisoners appeared before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry – more than a year and a half after being picked up – he ordered a full medical examination. The Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) last month handed over the men to the custody of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, after the Supreme Court took up the case.
“These people have been languishing in torture cells for over one and a half years,” Advocate Tariq Asad told the court, adding that, during confinement, the prisoners were not exposed to sunlight which deteriorated their health.
Resuming the Adiala missing prisoners’ case, the apex court sought written explanations from the ISI and MI chiefs, Judge Advocate General (JAG) and K-P Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir Khan regarding the details about the prisoners and why they were not presented on the court’s earlier order.

Six-year-old son of prisoner Mazharul Haq hysterically sobbed upon seeing his father after almost two years.
“I have severe pain in my chest, my shoulders are itching. I am still shocked and unwell,” another detainee told AFP.
Meanwhile, the court told the K-P chief secretary to submit a comprehensive report entailing the details of the detention and a medical board report of the detainees within four days, while the JAG, MI and ISI were told to submit their reports on March 1.
The court directed the ISI and MI chiefs to satisfy the court as to how they had held the 11 prisoners, what sort of trial was conducted, how they dealt with them and why their health conditions were deteriorating.
“My son was kept in Parachinar in an open room where temperatures were below zero degrees,” one of the detainees’ mothers told The Express Tribune.
The chief justice then inquired about the prisoners and asked where they were before January 26. K-P chief secretary replied he did not have any knowledge regarding the whereabouts of the prisoners.
The chief justice criticised his statement and said, “A provincial chief secretary should be aware of everything that happens in the province.”
“A medical board shall be constituted to examine their health.”
Counsel of the prisoners Advocate Asad informed the court that three out of the seven prisoners were suffering from kidney failure, while the rest had been diagnosed with other chronic diseases.
Defence of Human Rights Chairperson Amina Janjua prayed to the court to order the release of all the missing persons currently detained in the country’s jails. Meanwhile, the court ordered that prisoners will now remain under provincial administration and not the ISI or MI.
The three-member bench, headed by the chief justice, had served notices to the ISI and MI chiefs on January 25 to explain the circumstances behind the deaths of the four prisoners.
The 11 accused had been facing a court martial under the Army Act on charges of attacking General Pervez Musharraf, the General Headquarters and ISI’s Hamza Camp base. They were picked up from the Adiala Jail by intelligence agencies after they had been acquitted of the charges by the court.
Four of the 11 detainees died in the custody of the ISI and MI, according to one of the detainees.

@Express Tribune

--

80 People officially went "missing" in 2010, 95 went missing in 2011... (official numbers by HRC)

 

[salmakh84]

Woman dies a day after seeing ‘missing’ sons

ISLAMABAD: Rohaifa, the mother of three ‘missing’ men, died of a heart attack on Tuesday night, a day after meeting at the Supreme Court, after a long struggle, her two detained sons who are facing court martial on charges of attacking important defence installations. The third brother died last month.

The woman’s son, Abdul Shakoor, told Dawn that her condition had become unstable soon after meeting Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid, who narrated the circumstances in which their third detained brother Abdul Saboor had died on Jan 20. She was a diabetes patient and also had blood pressure problems.

The Supreme Court, while hearing Ms Rohaifa’s petition, had ordered the intelligence agencies to present the detained civilians before it.

Her three sons were among 11 detainees who had gone missing from Adiyala Jail.

An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi had acquitted them on April 8, 2008, of terrorism, but the Rawalpindi district coordination officer issued their detention order under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, which was set aside by the Lahore High Court on May 28, 2010.

However, Adiyala Jail Superintendent Saeedulllah Gondal handed over the detainees to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) personnel. They took them to an unspecified place.

In May last year, the judge advocate general informed the apex court that the men had been formally arrested in the first week of April and a case had been registered against them under Section 2(1)(d) of the Pakistan Army Act of 1952.

Of the 11 detainees, four have died — Mohammad Aamir on Aug 15, Tahseenullah on Dec 17 and Said Arab on Dec 18 last year, and Abdul Saboor on Jan 20

Source: Dawn.com

 

[eik_pagall]

Woman dies a day after seeing 'missing' sons
What about a MOTHER died....