Daily Times

Islamabad High Court (IHC) senior puisne judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Friday summoned officials from the country’s intelligence agencies and the defence and interior ministries in a case about the recovery of missing Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad Shah.

The judge summoned the sector commanders of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), the director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and the defence and interior secretaries in the next hearing on May 29. The development came as Justice Kayani resumed hearing a petition seeking the recovery of the poet. During the hearing, AGP Awan and Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Ali Nasir Rizvi appeared before the court.

At the outset of the hearing, AGP informed the court that a few call detail records (CDRs) were available that were being used to trace Shah. At this, Justice Kayani asked him, “Are you saying that the state has failed?” To the AGP’s reply in negative, the judge observed, “To recover [the missing person] is the state’s compulsion, otherwise it would be its failure.” Justice Kayani then asked if the defence secretary was present, to which Awan said he was not as the court order had not mentioned so. “However, he will appear [if summoned],” the AGP assured the judge. Justice Kayani then ordered: “The defence secretary should appear at the next hearing and explain to us the ISI’s workings.

“How many sector commanders and their sub-ordinates are in the ISI?” he asked, adding that intelligence agencies would no more remain “in hiding”. The judge reiterated that not recovering Shah was the state’s failure, at which AGP Awan requested the court to not term it a failure: “If we are not able to present him [before the court], I’ll admit that the state has failed.” At this point during the hearing, Justice Kayani, referring to the police officials present in the court, said they had appeared there as they were “answerable”.

“Transparency in the working is highly important,” the judge observed, noting that while performing their duties, policemen “get beaten and have their uniforms torn apart too”. “If neither institutions are answerable nor can you make them answerable, what would happen? There must be a structure for agencies [where] someone is answerable to someone,” Justice Kayani noted. The judge then remarked that at this point, Shah’s recovery was inconsequential compared to “a few things” that he said he would settle.

“Now, the ISI sector commander’s statement will be recorded in the missing persons case. A police officer will record his statement and write it,” Justice Kayani stated. The judge said the defence secretary should explain to the court “how the ISI collects data” and how many people work under the sector commander. “It is our belief that all institutions are answerable to the nation,” Justice Kayani observed. “Ask other institutions’ officials if they have ever been suspended; they would never have been but a police official would say he has been suspended 24 or 38 times.

“We will now form a mechanism for those who go missing across Pakistan,” the judge said. The judge has to decide after looking at the law, Justice Kayani said, adding that recovering the person was not the solution to the matter. He then sought an explanation on the next hearing of the laws under which intelligence agencies were regulated, adding that a judge does not share “protected information”. Recalling that in another older case on missing persons, the defence and interior secretaries were fined Rs10 million each, Justice Kayani said, “I have never seen a court grant bail to a terrorist.”

“It has been 10 days [since Shah went missing]. I don’t know what state the poor person must be in,” Justice Kayani remarked. He further said that the court assistants would be appointed in the case, including journalists and former police IGs. At this point during the hearing, senior journalist Hamid Mir highlighted that journalists in Pakistan were facing great difficulties. Recalling Justice Kayani’s remarks made during a recent hearing in the same case, Mir said the law minister “held a press conference” regarding those. He then brought the judge’s attention to a gag order on television channels reporting court proceedings, at which Justice Kayani observed, “That notification is not for me.”

At Mir highlighting that as per the Pemra orders, only airing court proceedings of live-streamed cases was allowed, Justice Kayani said: “Whichever case on missing persons is fixed before this court, its hearing will be live-streamed.” Mir claimed that the government had “announced a war against the media through Pemra” and asked the judge if the proceedings of the current hearing could be reported on television. “The media absolutely is allowed to report this,” Justice Kayani observed, adding, “The Pemra order is not present before me. We will live-stream this court’s proceedings at the next hearing.” “I will issue an order for broadcasting missing persons’ cases live,” he stated.

The judge further observed that a larger bench should be formed to hear such cases so that the “matter could be solved”. Here, Justice Kayani said: “This is a very difficult time. We all are standing up not for one person but for the entire country. Whatever has happened in the last three years is before everyone. The work that one team did, the other team has now made it the suspect.” At this point during the hearing, the senior superintendent of police (operations) appeared before the court.

“[Shah’s] location has been traced. A [police] team is present there,” he informed the court, at which the judge asked him which agency the police were seeking assistance from. Upon the SSP replying that the police were seeking assistance from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Justice Kayani asked whether the ISI and the Military Intelligence (MI) were not taking part in the recovery efforts.

Here, Justice Kayani recalled that the missing person commission’s registrar had been summoned, observing that the body’s performance was upsetting. “They are also agreeing [to the orders] here [but] are not releasing the [missing] person either. The commission is at their mercy [so] when they are releasing [the person], they receive an order [against it] from another place,” the judge remarked.

“Is there any example that an intelligence officer was prosecuted?” the judge asked, adding that there was none. “This immunity that has been granted must be ended. Or legislation can be done to authorise the [intelligence] agencies for six months each time,” Justice Kayani said. At this, AGP Awan responded that the Constitution did not allow so. “The Constitution does not allow other things either but they are taking place,” Justice Kayani quipped. The judge then ordered SSP Zafar to record the ISI sector commander’s statement in the case and said that he should appear in person at the next hearing. “I believe that the sector commander is equivalent to an SHO (station house officer),” Justice Kayani remarked.