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PAKISTAN: The High Court is unable to recover a man from illegal military detention after 15 months

April 26, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-053-2010



27 April 2010
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PAKISTAN: The High Court is unable to recover a man from illegal military detention after 15 months

ISSUES: Arbitrary arrest and detention; disappearances; military
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man is still missing fifteen months after his arrest by plain clothed intelligence agents, and despite admissions by officials that he is in custody. Although the Supreme Court has made strong efforts to address the issue of disappearances in Pakistan it remains unable to hold military staff, such as those from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency answerable for illegal arrests and detentions. The father of the missing man was only able to file a police report a year after his son's disappearance.

CASE DETAILS:

According to reports from the victim’s father and a variety of NGOs working to recover missing persons, Mr. Jalil Ahmed Reki Baloch, 35 (details below), was abducted by persons in plain clothes on 13 February 2009 during the day. Eye witnesses report that 12 to 15 people emerged from a group of vehicles and pulled Jailil Reki into a pickup truck while he was walking home from Friday prayers, near a girls' school at Chowk Kechi on Saryab Road in Quetta. The vehicles included two jeeps and two pickups with tinted windows and no registration plates.

The following day police did not allow Jalil's father Mr. Abdul Qadeer Reki Baloch to file a First Information Report (FIR) at the nearby Shalkot police station in Saryab. The complaint was only recorded in the Roznamcha (the daily diary). Mr. Qadeer instead had to file a habeas corpus petition at the Balochistan High Court in Quetta (16 February, 2009, Constitutional Petition No.CP76/2009).

On 22 February we are told that an independent delegation met with the Chief Minister of Balochistan province, Mr. Nawab Aslam Raisani. The group, which included the chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan Mrs. Amina Masood Janjua, the president of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mr. Nasrullah Bangulzai Baloch and human rights activist Mr. Muhammad Zafar, was told that Jalil was in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI). The chief minister said that some weeks earlier the head of the ISI's Quetta division had asked him to support the filing of an FIR against Jalil Reki and another man, Dr. Bashir Azeem for burning Pakistan's flag and chanting anti-government slogans. The minister said that since he refused the ISI took the men into its custody. Dr. Bashir Azeem is also missing.

The team submitted their statements on the meeting as affidavits to the Supreme Court and the Balochistan High Court in Quetta, to the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Ms. Asma Jehangir and to the members of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that was set up by the provincial government to look into missing persons. The team consists of members of the ISI, Military Intelligence (MI), the Federal Investigation Unit (FIU) and Central Investigation Agency (CIA) in Balochistan province, along with the Inspector General of Police (IG) in Balochistan and the District Police Officer (DPO) of Quetta district. The affidavits can be read here: affidavit-1, affidavit-2, and affidavit-3.

During its regular hearing of missing persons cases in January 2010 the Supreme Court made a sweeping order for all police stations to file FIRs as requested in such cases, as is legally mandated. After a few more attempts, Jalil's father successfully lodged an FIR on 14 February 2010, exactly a year after his son’s abduction. The High Court of Balochistan had not acted on the constitutional petition from until the FIR was submitted in court. However subsequently during the hearing in April, the High Court judge ordered the attorney general of the province to submit his comments on whether the ISI and FC provincial chiefs should appear in court. The next hearing is fixed for June 2010.

The FIR holds two persons responsible for Jalil's abduction: Major General Saleem Nawaz, Director General of the Frontier Corp (FC) in Balochistan and Brigadier Saad Khattak, the then-head of the ISI in the province.

The director of operations at the Federal Ministry of Interior also wrote to the National Crisis Management Cell in Islamabad, on 22 March 2010 calling for the inclusion of Jalil's name in official list of missing persons, as seen here.

Persons who have been abducted by the ISI have reported severe torture and various other human rights violations during periods of incommunicado detention, often while being forced to confess to anti-state activities. There are strong concerns that the life and safety of Jalil and Dr. Bashir are at risk; they are certainly not being held according to standards set by Pakistan's criminal procedural code or constitution, and are being denied the right to a fair trial as due them under international law.

In a recently similar case, AHRC-UAC-036-2010 Mr. Murad Khan Marri disappeared for nine months after his arrest and abduction by plain clothed intelligence agents; he has been charged with crimes related to anti state activities and appears to have been extremely badly treated.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the officials listed below to show your concerns regarding the abduction of Mr. Jalil Ahmed Reki Baloch and questioning the will and ability of the provincial government to govern the actions of Pakistan's military agencies. Please call for the safe and immediate recovery of the victim.

The AHRC has written to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and the Working Groups on Arbitrary Detention and on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances calling for their intervention into this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:  

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

PAKISTAN: The High Court is unable to recover a man from illegal military detention after 15 months

Name of victim: Mr. Jalil Ahmed Reki Baloch, 35, son of Mr. Abdul Qadeer. Resident of Killi Ghulam Jan Kaichi Baig, Saryab Road Quetta, Balochistan province.

Name of alleged perpetrators:
1. Major General Saleem Nawaz, Director General of the Frontier Corp (FC) in Quetta, Balochistan
2. Brigadier Saad Khattak, former head of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency in Quetta, Balochistan province, at the time of the victim's disappearance;

Date of incident: 13 February, 2009
Place of incident: Outside the girls' school at Chowk Kechi on Saryab Road, Quetta, Balochistan

I was extremely concerned to hear that a man in Balochistan is still missing fifteen months after his arrest by plain clothed intelligence agents, despite admissions by officials that he is in custody. Although the Supreme Court has made strong efforts to address the issue of disappearances in Pakistan it seems that it is still unable to hold military staff, such as those from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency answerable for illegal arrests and detentions. This is something that require immediate attention by all concerned authorities.

According to reports from the victim’s father and a variety of NGOs working to recover missing persons, Mr. Jalil Ahmed Reki Baloch, 35 (details below), was abducted by persons in plain clothes on 13 February 2009 during the day. Eye witnesses report that 12 to 15 people emerged from a group of vehicles and pulled Jailil Reki into a pickup truck while he was walking home from Friday prayers, near a girls' school at Chowk Kechi on Saryab Road in Quetta. The vehicles included two jeeps and two pickups with tinted windows and no registration plates.

The following day I am told that the police did not allow Jalil's father Mr. Abdul Qadeer Reki Baloch to file a First Information Report (FIR) at the nearby Shalkot police station in Saryab. The complaint was only recorded in the Roznamcha (the daily diary). Mr. Qadeer instead had to file a habeas corpus petition at the Balochistan High Court in Quetta (16 February, 2009, Constitutional Petition No.CP76/2009).

On 22 February an independent delegation met with the Chief Minister of Balochistan province, Mr. Nawab Aslam Raisani. The group, which included the chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan Mrs. Amina Masood Janjua, the president of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mr. Nasrullah Bangulzai Baloch and human rights activist Mr. Muhammad Zafar, was told that Jalil was in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI). The chief minister said that some weeks earlier the head of the ISI's Quetta division had asked him to support the filing of an FIR against Jalil Reki and another man, Dr. Bashir Azeem for burning Pakistan's flag and chanting anti-government slogans. The minister said that since he refused the ISI took the men into its custody. Dr. Bashir Azeem is also missing.

The team submitted their statements on the meeting as affidavits to the Supreme Court and the Balochistan High Court in Quetta, to the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Ms. Asma Jehangir and to the members of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that was set up by the provincial government to look into missing persons, which I have seen.

During its regular hearing of missing persons cases in January 2010 the Supreme Court made a sweeping order for all police stations to file FIRs as requested in such cases, as is legally mandated. I hear that Jalil's father successfully lodged an FIR on 14 February 2010, exactly a year after his son’s abduction, which is fortunate, since the High Court of Balochistan had not acted on the constitutional petition until the FIR was submitted in court. However subsequently during the hearing in April the High Court judge ordered the attorney general of the province to submit his comments on whether the ISI and FC provincial chiefs should appear in court. The next hearing is fixed in June 2010.

Please be informed that the FIR holds two persons responsible for Jalil's abduction: Major General Saleem Nawaz, Director General of the Frontier Corp (FC) in Balochistan and Brigadier Saad Khattak, the then-head of the ISI in the province. The director of operations at the Federal Ministry of Interior also wrote to the National Crisis Management Cell in Islamabad on 22 March 2010 calling for the inclusion of Jali's name in official list of missing persons.

Persons who have been abducted by the ISI have reported severe torture and various other human rights violations during periods of incommunicado detention, often while being forced to confess to anti-state activities. There are strong concerns that the life and safety of Jalil and Dr. Bashir are at risk; they are certainly not being held according to standards set by Pakistan's criminal procedural code or constitution, and are being denied the right to a fair trial as due them under international law.

Please intervene immediately to ensure the safe and immediate recovery of Mr. Jalil Ahmed Reki Baloch and Dr. Bashir Azeem, and to launch an investigation into their disappearance. Given the frequency of missing persons cases emerging from this region I strongly question the ability of the provincial government to govern the actions of Pakistan's military agencies, and I suggest that this be immediately addressed by all those concerned with the restoration of the rule of law in the country.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Prime Minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: secretary@cabinet.gov.pk  

2. Mr.Syed Mumtaz Alam Gillani
Federal Minister for Human Rights
Ministry of Human Rights
Old US Aid building
Ata Turk Avenue
G-5, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +9251-9204108
Email: sarfraz_yousuf@yahoo.com  

3. Dr. Faqir Hussain
Registrar
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9213452
E-mail: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk  

4. Minister of Law
Government of Punjab
Punjab Secretariat
Ravi Road
Lahore
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92-42-99212004
E-mail: law@punjab.gov.pk  

5. Nawab Aslam Raisani
Chief Minister of Balochistan
Chief Minister House, Quetta
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 920 2240
Tel: +92 81 449582 / 440661
E-mail: mirlashkari@yahoo.com  

6. Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi
Governor of Balochistan
Governor House Balochistan,
Quetta- Balochistan province,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 920 2992

7. Chief Secretary
Government of Balochistan
Quetta, Balochistan province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 9202132
Email: chiefsecy@balochistan.gov.pk

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-053-2010
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.