Intelligence officials should be prosecuted over enforced disappearances: IHC judge

• "Time will come when intelligence officers will be prosecuted."
• "Police are front face of the state," says IHC justice.
• Practice of enforced disappearance only prevails in Pakistan: IHC.

ISLAMABAD: Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of Islamabad High Court (IHC) has observed that enforced disappearances take place because state institutions do not believe in the rule of law and called for prosecuting intelligence agencies’ officials.

“Is it difficult that police will write a supplementary [statement in FIR] and make the intelligence officers accused? Time will come when intelligence officers will be prosecuted,” the IHC judge remarked during a hearing of a petition filed by lawyer Imaan Mazari seeking recovery of missing Baloch students on Wednesday.

Justice Kayani said the prime minister, secretaries of interior and defense must give an affidavit that enforced disappearance will not happen in the future.

“Police are the front face of the state, other institutions are not..,” he added.

The IHC judge said trials of terrorists are held in anti-terrorism courts. “Is it forbidden to hold the trial of Baloch extremists in the same courts?” asked Justice Kayani.

The IHC judge also asked the federal government to restore the anti-terrorism courts in Balochistan to hold trials of the accused and added that the petitioners seeking recovery of missing Baloch students did not want to protect terrorists.

“The concept of missing persons is only found in Pakistan, not in other countries,” the judge noted.

During the hearing, the IHC judge also expressed concerns about the well-being of recovered persons.

“No missing Baloch person has ever come before me after recovery…I don't know if the recovered people are fine or not?”

The IHC judge also inquired from petitioner Mazari whether the protest sit-in staged by protesters against enforced disappearances is still underway.

Mazari informed the court that the Baloch protesters sit-in was still going on and they were harassed again despite court’s directives.

The IHC adjourned the hearing of the case till February 13.