Government, parliament not prepared to rein in ISI: Top judge

A top Pakistani judge has said that nobody, including the federal government and parliament, is prepared to bring in legislation to control the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Peshawar High Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan made the observation while hearing cases related to 282 "missing persons" of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, a media report said today.
Khan warned that courts would be forced to restrict members of law enforcing agencies and security forces to their barracks if they continued to whisk away citizens almost every day through unlawful means, The News reported.
He said the provincial and federal governments had become spectators to the violation of the Constitution, laws and fundamental rights of citizens by intelligence agencies and security forces.

Governance and the democratic system would run only when law enforcing agencies act under the law of the land and the Constitution, he argued.
Khan observed that the CIA was a strong intelligence agency of the US and its top officials appeared immediately before courts when asked to do so.'
He suggested that like in the US, Pakistan's civilian government should make the ISI its subordinate as people's problems are on the rise and illegal detention centres have become a big problem for the judiciary.
Courts across the country have begun taking up cases related to "missing persons" or those detained without charge by intelligence and security agencies after Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry launched a probe into the issue some time ago.