Islamabad Court summons Pakistan’s caretaker PM on Feb 19 over failure to recover allegedly missing Baloch students

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday summoned Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on February 19 over the failure to recover allegedly missing Baloch students, Pakistan -based Dawn reported.

The court summoned Anwaarul Haq Kakar as Islamabad High Court’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani resumed hearing a petition regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on enforced disappearances, according to Dawn report.

The commission was formed in 2011 to find missing persons and fix responsibility on the people or organisations responsible for them. In November last year, the IHC said a case could be lodged against the caretaker PM and others if they were unable to find the missing Baloch students and unite them with their families.

During that hearing, the Attorney General for Pakistan said that out of 50 missing persons, 22 had been recovered. He further said that the whereabouts of 28 others were still unknown.

At the previous hearing on January 10, Justice Kayani stated that a day would come when intelligence officials would also be held accountable and face prosecution for their cases, Dawn reported.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Justice Kayani expressed displeasure over the failure of the authorities to find the missing persons and said, “The punishment for enforced disappearances should be the death penalty.”

He further said, “Usually the death penalty is awarded once but in these cases, the punishment should be given twice.” The judge stated that he was summoning Pakistan’s caretaker PM for now and would later issue instructions for the incoming PM to appear before the court, according to Dawn report.

During the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Usman Ghumman said that the government required more time in the case. He said that another Baloch missing student had been recovered.

However, Justice Kayani remarked that he was being “generous” by not summoning the director generals of the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence. Subsequently, Justice Kayani directed Kakar to appear in court on February 19 at 10 am (local time) and tell the court why a case should not be lodged against him.