Intelligence failure

The Supreme Court is actively pursuing the missing persons' cases to ensure they are tried only in civilian courts

  By Naveed Ahmad

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2007-weekly/nos-02-09-2007/dia.htm#1

The intelligence agencies of the country are persistently on the receiving end, whether it is the reference against the chief justice or operation against Lal Masjid or the trauma faced by the missing persons' families.

Early last week, the Courtroom 1 of the Supreme Court witnessed unusual scenes when a civilian youth, Imran Munir, facing court martial for alleged espionage charges was given into civilian custody for at least a fortnight. Hafiz Abdul Basit, another person handed over to a Military Intelligence officer by the Federal Investigation Agency, was traced at the last minute of hearing after the chief justice ordered the arrest of the FIA director general until the citizen was traced. The government failed to prove charges against him, resulting in his release on SC orders.

Similarly a German national, Aleem Nasir, was picked up from the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore in June with a substantive quantity of precious gemstones; he was also proven innocent and detained without lawful authority. Like Abdul Basit and Imran Munir, the country's secret services were reluctant to produce Aleem Nasir before the chief justice as well.

The hearing had been adjourned for a fortnight with clear instructions to Deputy Attorney General Ms Naheen for bringing in the detailed whereabouts of the missing persons. Thanks to the relentless courage of Mrs Amina Masood Janjua, the Supreme Court has included all cases of missing persons in the suo motu notice taken for her husband's disappearance in 2006. Her NGO, Defence of Human Rights (DHR), has listed over 285 missing persons while the HRCP is pursuing the cases of 155 missing Baloch and Sindhi nationalists. It goes without saying that the case got a fresh impetus during the judicial crisis and after the restoration of the Chief Justice on July 20.

Earlier in its annual report on human rights, the US State Department had acknowledged the disappearances: "There was an increase of politically motivated disappearances. Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts, particularly in terrorism and national security cases." Amnesty, Asia Watch and Human Rights Watch have been far more critical of forced disappearances during the Musharraf regime.

Just as the Guantanamo Bay prison attracts condemnation and rejection from sane Americans, the cases of these missing persons are ugly scars on the face of military-led ruling coalition. The civil liberties have touched the lowest ebb since the America's 'War on Terror' proliferated across the planet.

The Chief justice, along with his fellow judges, is the last remaining hope for the dejected families of missing persons. Startling revelations about Masood Ahmad Janjua by various traced and freed persons in their affidavits suggest that there is much more to follow in the forthcoming proceedings. Imran Munir, a young man, has been produced from a Mangla detention centre to record a statement about Mrs Amina's husband who was reportedly living in the same prison. According to a letter and his diary pages, Imran Munir was asked to co--operate with the interrogators. According to DHR claims, he was also made to meet Masood Janjua who used to be in the same cell. Imran, who is suffering from cardiac problems and now hospitalised in PIMS on court orders, in his initial statement courageously, challenged the intelligence agencies' claims while describing gory details of physical and mental torture. The Supreme Court would record his detailed statement about his own condition, crime and about Masood Ahmad Janjua, for whom he is being produced as prime witness.

At the same time, advances are likely in the case of Faisal Faraz who went missing on the same date under similarly mysterious conditions when Janjua was allegedly picked up. The gruesome story of missing Atiq-ur-Rahman too is on the agenda for the next hearing. This decorated scientist of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) went missing on the morning of June 23, on his wedding day. The devastated parents were harassed by police on pursuing the case and were eventually told that some agency has picked up their son. During the last hearing at the SC, a police record presented before the court suggested that an intelligence officer came to seek details about the scientist's family as well as details about his father-in-law who is lawyer in Karachi.

Simultaneously, the Supreme Court is also pursuing the missing persons from Sindh and Balochistan who had alleged links with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and other nationalist outfits. Many optimist human rights activists believe that the Supreme Court should soon look into the military operations being carried out in Balochistan and especially the one which resulted in the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The mere fact that the five-member bench, led by none other than Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sat at least for four hours beyond the court timing highlights the importance attached with the case. The chief justice has repeatedly made references to summoning the chiefs of intelligence agencies as well as the defence secretary if the progress in the case continues to remain far from his satisfaction.

navid.rana@gmail.com