ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has asked officials of law enforcement agencies and provincial governments to expedite investigations into the cases of missing persons after registering FIRs.
 
The minister, who chaired a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue of missing persons at the interior ministry here on Saturday, said fresh investigation reports on missing persons would be presented in the Supreme Court at the next hearing.
 
Secretaries of interior and defence and representatives of the provincial governments, law enforcement and intelligence agencies attended the meeting.

Mr Malik reiterated that the federal government, in coordination with provincial governments, would make serious efforts to trace the whereabouts of all missing persons.
 
According to an official handout, all home secretaries have been asked to assist Attorney General Anwar Mansoor in order to comply with the directives of the Supreme Court.

A three-judge bench, comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Sair Ali, has been hearing the cases of missing persons for four years on petitions filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Defence of Human Rights and former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar.

At the last hearing, the attorney general had informed the court that till 2008, 1,600 persons had gone missing.

Mr Mansoor told the court that 1,300 of the 1,600 missing persons had disappeared soon after the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006 and the 2007 Lal Masjid operation.

He suggested constitution of a judicial commission comprising retired judges of the apex court to probe the whereabouts of the missing.