"These will remain in cold storage and not be honoured by the present Supreme Court as orders have been passed not to fix dates for the hearing of these cases," alleges Haider, also secretary general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) that has been pleading many rights cases, including those of enforced disappearances.

Who would know that better than 35-year-old Amina Janjua Masood, who has been spearheading the campaign against enforced disappearances since August 2006. Her husband Masud Janjua, an Islamabad businessman, went missing July 30, 2005.

"Our campaign has suffered a major setback. Our supporters (families of the missing) have thinned because their hopes are dashed," Janjua told IANS from Islamabad.

Their protests continue twice every week. "But you don't get to know as the national media has been barred from covering these events."

Organising the families of the missing on a joint forum - Defence of Human Rights - Janjua has been rallying support to get the "485 on my list" released from the "clutches of the secret agencies". So far 110 have come home.

Held arbitrarily, incommunicado at undisclosed locations, the figure of 485, according to Amnesty International, represents just the tip of the iceberg since Pakistan became a US ally in the latter's 'war on terror' six years ago. While the exact number is unknown, Amnesty believes over 2,000 have disappeared since 2001.

Janjua attributes her success to "the efforts of the deposed chief justice" whom she claims was their "closest ally" and their "only hope in our search for the missing".

Many observe that the suspension of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March 2006 came because of his unrelenting pursuit of military and civilian secret agencies to produce the disappeared.

"The military ruler could not bear the idea of intelligence officials being summoned by the court and wanted a free hand in picking up people and keeping them in custody without trial," said Zohra Yusuf, a member of the HRCP.

For the families of the missing persons, Chaudhry's sacking proved devastating. Although reinstated four months later, after which he continued pursuing the disappearances cases with renewed vigour, the blow came when Musharraf declared emergency Nov 3 and dismissed senior judges.

"We were just days away from getting our loved ones back," says a disheartened Janjua, when Musharraf imposed emergency and deposed the judiciary. "Now everything is in disarray."

A hearing set for Nov 13 was to be decisive, according to Janjua, as Chaudhry had told the government that the court had enough evidence to show that the missing were with the various secret agencies.

Janjua said Chaudhry had ordered the government not only to make the missing people "surface" but also to provide evidence of why they were apprehended in the first place.

Asked if the new Supreme Court would take up their fight, Janjua says sardonically: "Pinning hope on this apex court would be ridiculous. It's a tailor-made bench meant to rubber-stamp whatever the president says and does. And he does not want to give back our loved ones," says a dejected Janjua.

(Zofeen T. Ebrahim can be contacted at zofeen28@hotmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10902&Itemid=88