[Reader-list] PPP demands panel to probe 'disappearances'

[Zulfiqar Shah]

PPP demands panel to probe 'disappearances'
  By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
   
  Islamabad: A major opposition party yesterday demanded the government set up a panel to probe the alleged detention of a large number of citizens by intelligence agencies without following legal procedures.
   
  In a statement, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar said reports suggested nearly 800 people had been picked by the agencies during the past five years. 
   
  The party expressed grave concern over the "mysterious disappearance" of the citizens. "It is a national disgrace that increasing number of citizens of the state not only vanish without a trace, but their disappearances are greeted with deafening silence by the state agencies," Babar said.
   
  Citing some cases, he said brothers of Baloch senators Sanaullah Baloch and Shahid Bugti were recently kidnapped.
   
  Educationist Masood Ahmad Janjua had been missing since July 30 last year and Dr Aafia Sidiqui disappeared three years ago, the spokesman said.
   
  Babar said nuclear scientist Attiqur Rehman disappeared on his wedding day two years ago from Abbottabad and Dr Safdar Sarki of Jeay Sindh, the President of the Sindh Nationalist Forum Asif Baladi and the head of a private TV channel Munir Mengal had also "recently joined the long list of mysteriously disappeared". 
   
  The spokesman said that innocence or guilt can be established only in a court of law and not by intelligence agencies. "The Human Rights Committees of the Senate and the National Assembly should jointly take up the issue and set up an independent commission to investigate the growing number of disappeared citizens in Pakistan," he said. 
   
  Babar said it is disturbing that the Ministry of Defence had taken the position in courts that it exercised only administrative control over the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence.
   
  http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/08/10/10058925.html
  The Gulf News, UAE 
   

 		
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