After skipping summons in the Baloch missing students’ case twice, Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar finally appeared in the Islamabad High Court [IHC] last Wednesday. The summons had been issued by Islamabad High Court [IHC] senior Puisne Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani hearing a petition filed by human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari regarding enforced disappearance of 59 Baloch students.

Remarking that the “Caretaker prime minister should not consider coming to court as an insult,” Justice Kayani noted that “Even after 21 hearings, the absence of positive results [on recovery of the missing students] is an insult to the Constitution of Pakistan.” He accordingly wrote in his order that “There is no way out except to summon the prime minister, ministers, and secretaries to inform the court why the matter is not being given due importance.”

However, rather than accepting institutional failure and informing the court about the steps being taken to recover the missing Baloch students, Kakar instead tried to obfuscate the issue by going on a tangent. Brazenly absolving the government of any lapses, he went on to complain that “The series of accusations [of rampant enforced disappearances in Balochistan] leveled against the state every other day should stop.”

Kakar’s complete lack of concern about enforced disappearances in Balochistan became evident when he told a reporter while leaving the court he had “defended the allegations against the state in the name of enforced disappearances.” Though extremely shameful, this irresponsible utterance comes as no big surprise as it’s not the first time that the powers-that-be in Pakistan have exhibited such a callous attitude towards the brutalised people of Balochistan.

In April 2019, while replying to Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir’s query of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, the then Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public........

© Eurasia Review