ISLAMABAD  - The Supreme Court on Monday sought affidavits from 11 witnesses including former President Pervez Musharraf and ex-secretaries ministries of defence and interior in enforced disappearance of Masood Janjua by October 6.
A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed heard the case of missing Masood Janjua.
The court directed Additional Attorney General to submit the affidavits from 11 persons including Musharraf and some military and intelligence officers who had earlier submitted their statements regarding Janjua's disappearance. The court gave these directions on an application filed by Amna Masood Janjua, spouse of missing Masood Janjua. She has requested the court for cross-examination of these persons in connection with her missing husband.
During the proceeding, Amna provided a list of 12 persons including five new names comprising former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharaf, former Secretary Defence Syed Athar Ali Abbass, former Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah and Brigadier (Retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema and Brigadier (Retd) Javed Iqbal Lodhi, former DGs National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC).
On last hearing she had provided list of seven personnel including Col Jehangir Akhtar, Col Habibullah, Brigadier Mansoor Saeed Sheikh, Lt General Nusrat Naeem, Lt General Shafqat Ahmed, Lt General Nadeem Taj and Malik Muhammad Qayyum, former Attorney General, for cross-examination. Amna Masood in her application contended that statement of Dr Imran Munir, recorded under Section 161 CrPC, taken on oath by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by the Ministry of Interior and the Commission of Inquiry for Enforced Disappearance, is self explanatory and very comprehensive, endorsing his own hand written diary notes of 2007 regarding Masood Janjua being with him in detention facility located in Westridge.
"After this high-level concrete material evidence there remains no need to present any further proof whatsoever regarding the presence of Masood Janjua in the hands of government agencies," she contended.
During the hearing, Amna while responding why she has been urging the court to seek Musharraf name in the witness box, told that Gen Shafqat had informed her father-in-law via telephone call that Musharraf directed him to convey the message that Masood Janjua is alive.
At this Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokar told the court that former President Musharraf had sought report from the then director generals ISI, Military Intelligent chief and Intelligence Bureau head pertaining to status of Masood Janjua.
Justice Jawad S Khawaja observed that the court also wanted to reach a tangible result in the matter of Masood Janjua that either he is alive or not.
It is pertinent to mention here that a commission comprising Justice (Retd) Kamal Mansoor Alam, Justice (Retd) Fazlur Rehman and Justice (Retd) Nasira Iqbal was formed in March 2010 to sort out the cases of missing persons in the country.
It had finalised its report in 2011 and had submitted its report to the then government, recommending appropriate compensation to the victims of enforced disappearances.
The Commission had further recommended that in order to put an end to the issue of enforced disappearances/missing persons, the intelligence agencies should be restrained from arbitrarily arresting and detaining anyone without due process of law.
Amna Masood Janjua requested the court to accept the statement of Dr Imran Munir, given to Joint Investigation Team (JIT) once for all and prosecute the culprits who had tried to cheat the court by producing fake affidavit of Imran Munir. She further requested the court to order immediate release of her spouse Masood Janjua and his friend Faisal Faraz.
Pak-China joint air exercise concludes
A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) contingent returned to the country after completion of a joint air exercise with Chinese air force, a press release said on Monday.
The exercise involved air operations for improving the coordination and interoperability of both the forces, the press release added. During the exercise, combat aircraft from PAF and PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force of China) conducted joint operations to validate air warfare concepts in the contemporary operational and tactical environments, the statement said.
The exercised labelled as Shaheen-II commenced on September 3 with the deployment of PAF fighter aircraft and personnel in China. The joint exercise was conducted with PLAAF for the first time, the press release stated.