PESHAWAR: Retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, who was recently appointed as a one-member commission for tracing 35 persons allegedly removed from an internment centre at Malakand by the security forces, has declined to accept the responsibility on different grounds, official sources say.

An official privy to the issue said that the federal government was under pressure from the Supreme Court, hearing the case of the 35 persons missing from Malakand internment centre, due to which it issued a notification on Jan 26 for setting up of the one-member commission with a task to complete its findings within a month.

He stated that initially an impression was created that retired Justice Raza had been appointed as chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED), which was previously headed by retired Justice Jawed Iqbal, for three years.

A report appearing in different newspapers on Jan 27 also stated that he was appointed for three-year term.

However, when the next day the notification was presented before the Supreme Court it showed that it was only a one-member commission for the specific purpose of a single case related to the disappearance of persons from the internment centre.

A source close to Justice Raza told Dawn that he had sent a letter to the government on Jan 30 wherein he had rejected the government decision to appoint him as the one-member commission.

He said that there were multiple reasons for rejecting the government offer.

He said that when the Supreme Court, which has been hearing this case for last many months, could not trace the missing persons how could a one-member commission, not as powerful as the apex court, could trace them in a month.

Secondly, he said that the government had given an impression to Justice Raza that he would be appointed for three years as head of the CIED, but when the notification was issued by the ministry of defence it was only for a specific case for one-month time.

Justice Raza is a former chief justice of the Peshawar High Court and retired as a senior judge of the Supreme Court.

The concerned notification also included terms of reference of the one-member commission. The ToRs include: Ascertain the whereabouts of the unaccounted for persons from the 35 persons recorded in HRC No 29388K/2013 (case pending before SC); determine whether any person was detained or removed illegally; if yes, ascertain the identity of persons who were responsible for illegal detention or removal and make recommendations to the federal government for taking action in consequence of findings recorded in the inquiry; and, the commission shall also furnish its recommendations regarding similar other cases.

Instead of setting up the one-man commission the government should have appointed Justice Raza as the chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, which has more powers, said an advocate of the high court, Shahnawaz Khan.

The apex court has been hearing the case of a missing person,Yasin Shah. The court had on Dec 10 last year held the army authorities responsible for removing 35 persons from the internment centre, of whom only seven were produced before the court.