I remember bring up this issue over a year and a half back, at that time most papers were nervous about writing about it..now the Supreme Court has gotten involved, but i suspect little will change. This is once again the price one pays for having unaccountable intelligence agencies super equipped with the latest American equipment and training. In the 1980’s it created agencies which caused unprecdented destabilisation of the supposed period of democracy..what happens next will probably be just as bad..
All eyes are now set on December 1, the deadline given to the government by the Supreme Court for the retrieval of several missing people
By Noreen Haider
“Faisal was the centre of my universe. I had made a home in Lahore because Faisal had a job there and I did not want to stay away from him although we belong to Rawalpindi and my other son was already living in Islamabad,” said Zainab Khatoon mother of Faisal Faraz with tears running down her eyes. “I don’t know where they have taken him and why.”
Faisal Faraz, is a mechanical engineer missing since July 30, 2005 .26-year old Faisal Faraz is among the scores of people missing in Pakistan since the government started a crackdown on Jehadi outfits in the war on terror after 9/11. Faisal had done his B.Sc Engineering from GIK Institute. He was working as a service engineer in Lahore, in Wartsila Pakistan. He was the son of Muhammad Gul Faraz Late professor of Atchison College Lahore. “We lived inside Atchison College for twenty years, even after my husband passed away in 1996. Both my sons Faisal and Sohail studied in Atchison College.They were top achieving students. They were squash champions and ace horseback riders. They had won so many trophies and medals in their school career,” said Zainab Khatoon. “Everybody loved my boys in the college .They still do. I have lost all will to live after Faisal .I don’t know why I am alive.”
On July 29, 2005 Faisal submitted a Hajj application for himself and his mother in Lahore. On July 30, he was supposed to go to Rawalpindi. He had booked a seat of Daewoo Bus for Peshawar for 12 noon, where he was going with Mr Masood Ahmed Janjua presumably on a Tablighi mission .His family did not know about the Tabligi mission or the trip to Peshawar.
Masood Ahmed Janjua 47, educationist and businessman, is also missing ever since. Owner of CIT College Rawalpindi and Vital Travels Agency Islamabad, he was also the General Secretary of Hamza foundation, a welfare institute in Islamabad. “Masood was an ideal husband and father. The children adored him .He had spoiled the children with too much love. Now they are devastated,” said his wife Amina Masood Janjua, talking to TNS. "On July 30, after breakfast, Masood left for Rawalpindi. He was going to Peshawar by Daewoo at 12 noon. He said that Faisal would be accompanying him and they were to stay at a friend’s place and may have to go farther for the Tabligi mission if need be. Masood said that he would keep in touch and call soon. He never called. I never heard from him again,"Amina said.
Both Faisal Faraz and Masood Janjua were supposed to catch the 12 o’ clock Daewoo Bus but they never made it to the bus station. Nobody has seen them since. They simply disappeared.
Then on, the families of Masood Janjua and Faisal Faraz have left no stone unturned to find some clue of their disappearance but have been unsuccessful. In December 2005, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) took suo motu notice of the disappearance of Masood Janjua and directed the IG Punjab to submit a report in this case. The report thus submitted was rejected by the CJP. Petitions were sent to all DGs of all security agencies without producing any results. The 80 years old father of Masood Janjua Lt Col Retd Ali Muhammad personally met President Musharraf on Eid ul Azha at the gathering of army personal and personally handed application to him for the speedy recovery of his son but to no avail.
In August 2006 a petition was submitted in the Supreme Court of Pakistan by Amina Masood Janjua and Zainab Khatoon They submitted a list of 16 missing people whose families have come together on a joint forum to locate their loved ones .
The Supreme Court on Friday November 10, 2006 gave a deadline to the government for the retrieval of several missing people, who are believed to have been detained by intelligence agencies for their alleged links with jihadi outfits.
A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad heard multiple complaints of disappearances by family members of the missing people. “On the next date of hearing, no excuse will be acceptable… and it is the responsibility of the state to trace these missing people,” the chief justice said, declaring that the national crisis management cell would be responsible if details of the whereabouts of the missing people were not produced in the court.
At the last hearing, Deputy Attorney General Nasir Saeed Shaikh told the court that out of a total of 41 cases, the government had traced nine missing people. He said that a report on the subject had also been prepared by the Interior Ministry in collaboration with intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The report, however, was not signed by the interior secretary and was not accepted by CJP. When contacted by TNS Nasir Sheikh said that he had no comments to make on the case of the missing people and no information to share.
Talking to TNS Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said: “We are working on the case and the data about missing people is being tabulated. As many as 41 cases have so far been brought to our notice and we are doing efforts to locate them.” When asked what is the interior ministry exactly doing for the location of missing people the secretary said: “It is primarily the responsibility of the provincial governments to locate the missing persons. We are supposed to ask them to expedite the cases. However, we are making efforts and doing everything we can to locate the missing people.”
Senator S.M. Zafar Chairman Standing committee on Human Rights said while talking to TNS: “We are collecting data and information about missing people from the newspapers and independent sources and forwarding it to the interior ministry. That is all we can do regarding these cases.”
There is a perception in Pakistani civil society that those people who have been subjected to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance belong to Islamist groups that support terrorist activities, sectarian killings and discriminatory laws and practices.
In the report published on the human rights violation in Pakistan Amnesty International has strongly condemned the forced disappearance and illegal detention of people. It says in the report that “Human rights are universal and should be enjoyed by all. Amnesty International takes no position on the guilt or innocence of alleged terror suspects; however, the organisation insists that everyone must be able to enjoy the full range of human rights. The rights to life, the security of the person, the protection of law and to freedom from torture cannot be suspended in any circumstances. Article 4 of the Constitution of Pakistan provides that ‘to enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being in Pakistan’. These words must become a reality, including in the context of the ‘war on terror’.”
All hopes are now pinned on the chief justice of Pakistan who has given December 1 as the deadline for the case.
The missing others
Some of the other names in the list include:
Attiq ur Rehman, officer at the Atomic Energy Commission, Abbottabad, missing since June 2004.
Mansoor, a computer expert, Hyderabad, missing February 2005.
M Altaf, electrician in NDC, tehsil Pindi Ghaib, Attock, missing since October 2003.
M Atif Idrees, MBA student, Lahore, missing since August 2004.
Hafiz Abdul Basit, teacher, Faisalabad, missing since January 2004.
Muhammed Tariq, pipe shop worker, Gujranwala, missing since June 2004.
Ali Sher, a diesel mechanic, Mardan, missing since February 2005.
Muhammad Ramzan, Jamshoro, missing since 2003.
Saif Ullah Akhtar, transporter, Mandi Bahauddin, missing since August 2004.
Obaid Ullah, teacher, Basti Malook Tehsil, district Multan, missing since November 2003.
Amina Masood Janjua said that they first protested in March in front of the Parliament House. Since September 1 2006, more and more families are contacting them from all over Pakistan whose relatives have been missing.
The first list of 16 people was handed to the Supreme Court as an initiative. But that is not the total tally. More and more families are raising their voices for their rights and the rights of the detained people and by now more than 40 families have come together under the platform of Defense of Human Rights for Missing People.