Islamabad:
The judge of the Supreme Court, judge Athar Minallah, underlined on Saturday the need for an independent judicial power and intrepid judges to approach the fate of the missing persons, recalling his own judicial struggles in some of the most difficult cases of forced disappearances.
Speaking during an event on people who have disappeared in Islamabad, judge Minallah said that the Pakistani institutions, including the judiciary and the Parliament, had to accept the responsibility of the crisis.
“Our heads should hang in shame,” he admitted, “while the women in Balutchistan continue to walk for dear missing beings”.
He deplored that “those who occupied exalted offices did not tell the truth in the last 77 years. The day they are starting to tell the truth, things change. Everyone knows the truth, but we pretend not to do it.”
The judge stressed that Balutchistan was “of the utmost importance for each Pakistan” and that the Constitution makes each judge responsible for the maintenance of fundamental rights.
“Even after the 26th amendment, article 184 has not been modified. Each judge of the Supreme Court is responsible for each violation of the fundamental rights which takes place in Pakistan.”
Recalling the lawyer movement, he said that his real objective was never just a legal restoration. “Let me say that it was not a movement for the restoration of judges. It had a much greater and more important role. His role was to restore democracy, to restore the Constitution, and above all, to have the rule of law in the country.”
He noted that during the lawyer movement, the slogan was “Riyasat Sab Ki Maan” (the state is the mother of all), which means that the state should take care of his children. However, he deplored that if the state itself is perceived as an accomplice, the courts remained helpless.
Judge Minallah also shared a personal memory of his years of civil service before resigning. Speaking in front of peers, he recalls, encouraged others to do the same, including a police officer who admitted to having been informed of “an unexpected policy of extrajudicial murders” during his first publication.
Regarding his judicial career, he described the disappearance cases applied as “the most difficult” he met since his appointment in 2014. He recalled that his very first decision on the issue had established a precedent.
“Fortunately, the first judgment I gave, victim of a forced disappearance, her family, this girl was also like the daughter of Amna,” he said. “And the judgment I gave … If you read this judgment, the instructions that were given, these instructions were then extremely effective during the four -year period that I was a chief judge.”
He stressed that he had specified his position in the government. “I had indicated very clearly to the executive that I will not tolerate a single incident of forced disappearance of my jurisdiction.”
Judge Minallah cited the Maira Sajid affair as a historic decision which has become a reference point for responsibility. During his mandate as chief judge of the High Court of Islamabad (IHC) from November 2018, he declared that the court had operated “24 hours a day as a constitutional court, managing urgent petitions even at night.
“The first case that came to me … I was at home and the Supreme Court did not take this case,” he recalls. “Although the journalists went there, I received it in the evening. I passed an order that it was my instructions in this judgment. All these officials will be held responsible if … and a separate message has been sent to the authorities that there will be no tolerance.”
Among these cases, there were those of an official missing secp linked to a retired general, a young man named Hamza, and another, Mnir Akram. In each case, strict judicial orders forced the authorities to produce individuals, sometimes in a few days. “But in the older cases, progress has been blocked by the lack of independent investigators,” he said.
He also recalled the disappearance of journalist Mudassar Naaru, whose young son was left to the care of his grandmother after the death of his mother. “One day, I was in the business in hearing of the court and all of a sudden, I heard the sound of a child crying in court … he was the child of Mudassar Naaru. His mother had died, and the state had not at least made known if he was alive, he was dead, or where he was.”
Looking to “raise awareness”, judge Minallah ordered Naaru’s son and grandmother to the Prime Minister at the time. “It is very, very difficult for the courts when the state does not cooperate with you,” he said, stressing that the responsibility was approaching outright with the federal and provincial leaders.
With “a very heavy heart,” he said, he then summoned the minister of the time Imran Khan in court. “And the Prime Minister appeared. The son of Naaru was also there. He also assured the court and to the child that his fate would be known when I was in a hurry from SC.”
Judge Minallah said the IHC had prioritized intrepid judges because “for a judge or for a court, the only real test is the confidence of the people”. He added that even Baloch students had approached the CIHC despite jurisdictional obstacles. “I knew that I did not have the jurisdiction, but I supposed it.
The SC was there, other courts were there, but the only judgment on forced disappearances, approaching the nature of the offense, its gravity and the extent to which it violates human rights, was the judgment of Maira Sajid. And in all jurisdictions, there is no other precedent, because I looked a lot. “”
He recalled that he had formed a commission on forced disappearances, appoint seven eminent voices, notably Afrasiab Khattak, the representatives of Raza Rabbani, PML-N and JUI-F de PPP, and the main lawyers Kamran Murtaza, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Masood Kausar. LUM academics were also included.
“I knew that they were all deeply vocal, that they had their hearts in this issue, and that they would find something significant,” he said, although he admitted that the spell of the report is not clear after his elevation in SC.
He revealed that in 2023, he wrote to the chief judge reporting the disappearances applied as “the most important question of this country”, but “nothing happened”.
“We are responsible for Amna Janjua, we are responsible for her children, we are responsible for each victim perceived as a victim of a forced disappearance,” he said. “I feel responsible and I apologize as a judge. Yes, I do it. I am responsible. We are all responsible.”
By calling for the disappearances applied as a national shame, judge Minallah said that a company “where the women of Balutchistan parades in the streets, our heads should hang”. But they are women like Amna Masood Janjua and Mahrang Baloch who continue to lead. They are only expressed. What this country needs are independent judges and an independent judicial system. “”
While stressing respect for parliament, he added: “My experience was only when they are in government, they do not want to hear that forced disappearances are a problem. They want to claim that this is not a problem. But that’s the case.”
Judge Minallah warned that without the rule of law, judicial independence, democracy and constitutionalism, “our destiny will not be fair for our future generations. We owe them. And we owe it to young people”.
