This story of mine about Hayatullah Khan commission report was suppressed by media. It was filed with Daily Dawn in December 2011, shared with BBC and an internationally acclaimed investigative reporter of Jang group. It never saw light of the day indicating how powerful our judicial commissions might be when it comes to probing military authorities in such an incident. Hayatullah Khan Commissions failure kept secret for 5 years Military officers defied Defense Ministry: Commission report Story followed by Interesting observations of commission about Hayatullah and Journalism in Pakistan: By Matiullah Jan ISLAMABAD Dec 14, A Judicial Commission, which was constituted to probe into alleged involvement of intelligence agencies into murder of a tribal journalist Hayatullah Khan five years ago, has failed to make conclusive findings but has observed lack of cooperation by military authorities. The government kept the commission’s failure secret for five years. “The concerned military officers did not consider it expedient to get their statements recorded despite [of] a direction by ministry of defense,” said the report to which this scribe was given limited official access, after almost five years of secrecy that kept the national and international media in suspense. 34 years old Hayatullah, who worked for local and free-lanced for international media, was kidnapped on 05 Dec 2005, only a day after he reported with photographic evidence that the death of an Al-qaeda operative Abu Hamza Rabia, in Mir Ali area of Pakistan’s troubled North Waziristan agency was caused by a US Hell Fire missile, pieces of which he had managed to show in his photographs. An embarrassed Pakistani government insisted it was an indigenous explosion that caused the death. After five months of kidnapping, Hayatullah was found dead, handcuffed and shot in the back of the head. “An inquiry cannot be a substitute of proper investigation and trial under the law, particularly when the area is governed by special constitutional provisions,” observed Justice Muhammad Raza Khan, the then judge of Peshawar High Court in a 27-page report. The judge said, “my first and primary recommendation is that the appropriate case be registered followed by proper investigation under the law.” The commission report also pointed to defiance of military officers towards the ministry of defense which had ordered them to appear before the commission and depose. The concerned military officers didnot consider it expedient to get their statements recorded despite a statement by the ministry of defense. Numerous other recommendations made by the commission include construction of a monument named after Hayatullah Khan in recognition of his services, and allotment of a plot in Peshawar to his children. Responding to its basic task of identifying the killers, the commission report referred to peculiar security situation which discouraged witnesses to step forward. “Even the children who had seen murderers were prevented by their tribe from disclosing their parentage. The family members of the deceased have not been able to lead any direct evidence in support of their allegations.” The commission noticed that during the investigations the government authorities had been giving, what it said, mis-statements and irresponsible comments to divert the attention of aggrieved family members and media to less important issues. “However despite the said lapses on the part of the government functionaries, it has to be conceded that the allegations in such offenses cannot be established through defaults, presumptions and suppositions.”
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 18:45:12 +0000
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