Islamabad:
Supreme Court Judge Justice At Har Minallah on Saturday emphasized the need for an independent court and fearless judges to tackle the situation of missing persons and recalled her own judicial matches in some of the most difficult cases of enforced disappearance.
When he spoke at an event about missing persons in Islamabad, Justice Minallah said that Pakistan’s institutions, including the judiciary and parliament, must assume responsibility for the crisis.
“Our heads should hang in shame,” he admitted, “as women from Balochistan continue to march for missing loved ones”.
He complained that “those who had exalted offices have not spoken the truth for the past 77 years. The day they begin to speak the truth will change. Everyone knows the truth, but we do not pretend to do so.”
The judge emphasized that Balochistan was “extremely important to each Pakistani” and that the constitution makes every judge responsible for maintaining fundamental rights.
“Even after the 26th amendment, Article 184 has not been amended. Each judge by the Supreme Court is responsible for any violation of fundamental rights taking place in Pakistan.”
When he remembered the lawyer’s movement, he said its real goals were never just legal restoration. “Let me say it was not a movement for the restoration of the judges. It had a far greater, much greater role. Its role was to restore democracy, to restore the constitution and, above all, to have the rule of law in the country.”
He noted that the slogan during the lawyer’s movement was “Riyasat Sab Ki Maan” (the state is the mother of everyone), which means the state is expected to care for its children. However, he complained that if the state itself is perceived as an accomplice, the courts are left powerless.
Justice Minallah also shared a personal memory from his civil service years before retiring. He spoke out in front of peers, he remembered, encouraged others to do the same, including a police officer who admitted to being informed of “an unannounced policy of outdoor killings” during his first post.
He turned to his legal career and described enforced disappearance cases as “the most difficult” he encountered since his appointment in 2014. He remembered that his very first decision on the issue had set a precedent.
“Fortunately, the first judgment I gave, the victim of enforced the disappearance, his family, that daughter was also like Amna’s daughter,” he said. “And the judgment I handed … If you read this judgment, the directions given, these directions were then extremely effective during the four -year period that I served as Chief Justice.”
He emphasized that he had made his attitude ready for the government. “I had made it very clear to the executive that I will not tolerate a single event with enforced the disappearance within my jurisdiction.”
Justice Minallah quoted the Maira Sajid case as a landmark decision that became a reference point for accountability. During his tenure as Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) of November 2018, he said the court acted “around the clock” as a constitutional court and handled urgent petitions even at night.
“The first case that came to me … I was home, and the Supreme Court didn’t take up that case,” he remembered. “Although the journalists went there, I received it in the evening. I adopted an order that these are my directions in this judgment. All these officials will be held responsible if … and a separate message was sent to the authorities that there will be no tolerance at all.”
Among such cases were those of a lack of SECP officials attached to a retired general, a young man named Hamza and another, Munir Akram. In each case, strict legal orders forced the authorities to produce individuals, sometimes within a few days. “But in older cases, the progress was stemmed by the lack of independent investigators,” he complained.
He also remembered the disappearance of the journalist Mudassar Naau, whose young son was left in the care of his grandmother after his mother’s death. “One day I was in the lawsuits and suddenly I heard the sound of a child crying in court … It was Mudassar when his child. His mother was dead, and the state had at least failed to know if he was alive, he was dead or where he was.”
Seeking to “Sensitize the question” ordered Justice Minallah Naarus’s son and grandmother to be taken to the then Prime Minister. “It is very, very difficult for the courts when the state is not cooperating with you,” he said, emphasizing that the responsibility was entirely with the federal and provincial leaders.
With “a very heavy heart,” he said, he later called the then Prime Minister Imran Khan to court. “And the prime minister appeared. When the son’s son was there too. He also assured the court and the child that his place of residence would be known when I was in haste increased to sc.”
Justice Minallah said IHC had prioritized fearless judges because “for a judge or before a court is the only real test’s confidence in the people.” He added that even Baloch students had approached IHC despite jurisdictive obstacles. “I knew I didn’t have jurisdiction, but I assumed it.
SC was there, other courts were there, but the only judgment of enforced the disappearance that turned to the nature of the offense, its gravity and to what extent it violates human rights, was the Maira Sajid judgment. And in all jurisdictions, there is no other precedent because I was sought to a large extent. “
He remembered that he formed a commission on enforced disappearance, appointed seven prominent votes, including Afrasiab Khattak, PPP’s Raza Rabbani, PML-N and Jui-F representatives and senior lawyers Kamran Murtaza, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Masood Kausar. Academics from Lums were also included.
“I knew they were all deeply vocal, that they had their hearts in this number and that they would come up with something meaningful,” he said, though he admitted the fate of the report remained unclear after his height to SC.
He revealed that in 2023 he had written to Chief Justice, which marked enforced the disappearance as “the most important case in this country,” but “nothing happened.”
“We are responsible to AMNA Janjua, we are responsible to her children, we are responsible to any victim who is perceived as a victim of enforced the disappearance,” he said. “I feel responsible, and I apologize to them as a judge. Yes, I do. I am in charge. We are all responsible.”
Justice Minallah, who called enforced the disappearance, a national shame, said that a society “where women from Balochistan parade on the streets, our heads must hang in shame”. But it is women like Amna Masood Janjua and Mahrang Baloch who continue to lead. They only express themselves. What this country needs is independent judges and an independent judiciary. “
While he emphasized respect for parliament, he added, “My experience has been that when they are in the government, they will not hear that enforced disappearance is a problem. They will pretend that it is not a problem. But it is.”
Justice Minallah warned that without the rule of law, judicial independence, democracy and constitutionality, “Our fate will not be fair to our future generations. We owe them. And we owe the youth”.
