Despite deadlines, set by the Supreme Court, to trace out the missing persons, government agencies have continued to resort to delaying tactics. The issue is highly sensitive as what is involved is the freedom and even the lives of those who are supposed to be in the custody of the agencies, some of them since 2005. While remaining firm, the court has continued to allow more time for their production.
In its previous hearing, it had directed the government to submit a detailed report by March 18 on the individual and collective petitions filed in the apex court regarding the missing persons. The presiding judge had said that the court would deliver the verdict on the case this month. "The law will take its course, irrespective of who is who," he had remarked, while directing the government to concentrate on the issue seriously. The stern warning seems to have had some effect. The Interior Ministry has filed a report with the court saying 965 people have gone missing in the country. The report by the Foreign Office maintained that 6,000 Pakistani nationals were languishing in foreign jails. The attorney general sought two weeks time to tally the figure with other reports. The FO was also asked to make its report more comprehensive. Even more significant was the decision by the government to appoint a judicial commission to hasten the probe.
The court also welcomed the idea of the commission. One can only hope that the proposed commission is set up at the earliest to be able to relieve the sufferings of the hundreds of families. One also expects that the commission would be given the powers, as spelled out by the Attorney General, on Thursday. The commission, he said, would be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court and two retired High Court judges would be its members. It could call any senior officer of the armed forces or Rangers, whose name had surfaced in connection with any missing person.
Further, its orders would be binding on all departments and institutions. Among other things that the commission would do, to hasten the process of the production of the missing persons, is the recording of evidence, which is outside the purview of the SC. Allaying some of the apprehensions expressed by a plaintiff, the apex court assured that the move would amount to the SC sharing the burden and not shifting it and that once the commission is set up, there would be two forums dealing with forced disappearances.
Another forum that needs to play a vital role in putting an end to forced disappearances is the Parliament. The lawmakers must simultaneously proceed to regulate the working of the security agencies. For this, a charter has to be provided to them, which currently they do not have, clearly defining their scope and limitations. There is also a need for a law declaring forced disappearances as a heinous crime and prescribing proper punishments. One can understand the need for the interrogation of individuals suspected to be involved in anti-state activities.
For this, a legal procedure has to be adopted. In civilised societies, practising the rule of law, even lawbreakers have to be dealt with in accordance with the law. They have to be taken into custody by the proper authority, which is the police, rather than any other department. The police should produce the accused in a court and get the necessary remand before handing them to a specified agency. Taking recourse to shortcuts like unlawful detention, torture and extra-judicial killings reduces the respect for law in society. While criminals violate the law, it is the duty of the state to enforce it. This cannot be done unless all organs of the state, as well as the government agencies, abide by the law themselves.
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