KARACHI: Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who was given additional charge of ministry of defense a day ago, on Thursday vowed to resolve the issue of persons as early as possible and said that a legislation will be made on the issue soon.
Talking to media representatives outside Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry on Thursday, Khawaja Asif said that it is responsibility of the state to locate missing persons. He said that no one can be detained without due process of law.
The defense minister said the government has sought some time from the Supreme Court to locate the missing persons. He said during short period of four months‚ the government was able to locate 738 missing persons and it would make every effort to locate others.
Later, the minister paid a visit to a protest camp outside the Karachi Press Club to speak to heirs of the missing persons of Balochistan. While talking to them, he said that he will speak to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the chief minister of Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik to resolve the issue and hoped to reach a solution as early as December 10.
Khawaja Asif said that the government is committed to resolve the missing persons issue as per law and the constitution.
The defence minister said that the missing persons should be produced before the concerned courts for prosecution of their alleged crimes by the authorities who are keeping them in custody.
Earlier, the defense minister assured the three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry hearing missing persons case that the government will submit a detailed report regarding missing persons by December 10.
The minister told the bench that 738 missing persons had so far been recovered by authorities. He said that it is our responsibility to recover all missing persons.
The chief justice said that those paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel who accused of involvement in cases of enforced disappearances should be presented in court.
The court summoned Inspector General of Frontier Corps in Balochistan to appear before the bench on Friday.
