{"id":1446,"date":"2017-03-30T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T11:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2017-03-30T11:18:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T11:18:05","slug":"quetta-inquiry-commission-top-court-hints-it-may-tone-down-language-of-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/?p=1446","title":{"rendered":"Quetta Inquiry Commission: Top court hints it may tone down language of report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Relatives<\/a>

Relatives mourn outisde Quetta hopsital. PHOTO: AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

ISLAMABAD:<\/p>\n

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The Supreme Court has indicated it may accept a toning down of the language of a report \u2014 subject to record \u2014 by a one-man judicial commission that severely castigated both the interior ministry and the country\u2019s top security czar after its investigation into the August 2016 bomb blast in Quetta.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps we may dilute the language [of the report] subject to record. You have to draw a line between the ministry and the person [minister],\u201d Justice Amir Hani Muslim told the interior ministry\u2019s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan on Monday.<\/p>\n

In the original report compiled by SC Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the Quetta Inquiry Commission (QIC) had highlighted the ministry\u2019s \u2018monumental failure\u2019 in countering terrorism and objected to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan\u2019s meeting with the leader of a banned outfit, as well as \u2018delays\u2019 in proscribing militant groups.<\/p>\n

Responding to the report, the ministry last week filed in the Supreme Court its 64-page reply in which it not only defended the ministry but also requested the court to expunge various parts of the report.<\/p>\n

Justice Hani was heading the Supreme Court\u2019s three-judge bench hearing a suo motu case about the Quetta blast which left more than 70 persons dead.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Makhdoom Ali Khan told the bench that the commission\u2019s report made derogatory observations regarding the interior minister, adding that had the observation been made against the ministry instead of the minister then it would have been a different matter.<\/p>\n

The counsel, however, said the ministry had no objections to the commission\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n

Regarding meeting of the interior minister with Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi \u2013 head of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a banned outfit \u2013 Makhdoom contended that the minister was meeting a delegation of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, which is not a proscribed organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe list of participants was not conveyed [to Nisar] and the minister was not aware that Ludhianvi was part of that delegation,\u201d he said, adding that the report gave an impression that the minister accepted demands of the delegation and was socialising with outlawed outfits on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Makhdoom said he had no objection to the commission\u2019s authority but the objections were only raised as observations against the minister.<\/p>\n

He said the decision whether to ban an organisation was made after the intelligence agencies\u2019 report. He pleaded to expunge the adverse remarks, adding that the apex court in a series of cases had expunged adverse remarks while maintaining the judgment.<\/p>\n

Justice Hani observed that hard work of the commission should be appreciated, adding that it is not the job of judges to carry out an investigation. The commission performed functions which were supposed to be done by the departments, he said, adding that there was no proper training of investigation officers.<\/p>\n

He also observed that the court wanted to know these things in the larger interest of public and country, adding that the bench was not sitting with a pre-determined mind. However, he observed that there are certain pockets in Punjab where proscribed organisations continued to operate.<\/p>\n

The judge also observed that according to the report, the ministry responded to the commission\u2019s inquiry after a delay of three months while under the standing operating procedure [SOP] of the ministry it should have responded to within 10 days.<\/p>\n

Later, the bench accepted the ministry\u2019s plea to provide material related to the commission\u2019s proceedings, on which the QIC report is based. However, it did not allow providing the confidential documents, based on reports of agencies, against which privilege was already sought.<\/p>\n

The bench allowed Hamid Khan \u2013 counsel for Balochistan Bar Council \u2013 to submit his response over the ministry\u2019s 64-page objections. Hamid said if the ministry withdrew its recent reply then they had no issue. However, otherwise, he said, they would file their response.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The court gave two weeks to Makhdoom Ali Khan for filing specific objections after examining the material on the basis of which the report was written. Meanwhile, Makhdoom sought time to get instruction from his client regarding the bench\u2019s observation about the dilution of language.<\/p>\n

The bench also took strong exception to the fact that three provincial secretaries were still working on their posts, despite the SC\u2019s 2013 judgment, and had got orders in their favour from the Balochistan High Court and the Services Tribunal.<\/p>\n

It expressed wonder at how the high court or tribunal could pass an order after the apex court\u2019s judgment. The court summoned all records of the secretaries\u2019 case and also issued notice to them to appear at the next date of hearing.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Advocate General Amanullah Kanrani told the bench that though the provincial government had issued notification regarding repatriation of the secretaries to health, communication and works and public safety but they had obtained relief from the high court and service tribunal. The hearing of the case has been adjourned for two weeks.<\/p>\n

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th<\/sup>, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has indicated it may accept a toning down of the language of a report \u2014 subject to record \u2014 by a one-man judicial commission that severely castigated both the interior ministry and the country\u2019s top security czar after its investigation into the August 2016 bomb blast in Quetta.   \u201cPerhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-law-order","category-local-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1448,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpectrade.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}