Judge Warns Pakistan's Government Over Killings In Southwest

Pakistani Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (file photo)

Pakistan's most senior judge says he is determined to push the government over killings and disappearances in southwestern Balochistan Province.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that the government is responsible for protecting citizens and "failures to do so are bound to have consequences."

For months, Chaudhry has been trying to investigate violence in Balochistan.

Earlier this year, he ordered the security services to produce missing people in court.

Despite 71 hearings of the case, not a single victim of the disappearances has been produced.

Chaudhry on December 5 ordered the provincial administration to report its compliance with earlier court orders in two weeks.

Rights activists accuse the military of killing and arresting suspected sympathizers of a separatist insurgency that erupted in 2004.

Based on reporting by AFP and Dawn.com