ISLAMABAD: The government formed a seven-member committee to deliberate a policy over the epidemic of abductions, torture and murder in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the administration to explain how the use of forced disappearances “became a tool of state policy”.
A notification issued by the Ministry of Interior to this effect announced the committee will be headed by Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar and comprise Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan, Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Marri, Minister for Communications Asad Mahmood, Minister for Defence Production Israr Tareen, Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Subzwari, and Minister for Science and Technology Agha Hassan Baloch.
Recommendations of the committee will be presented to the cabinet for further deliberations, it read. “The interior ministry shall provide secretarial support to the committee.”
The notification added the committee will also be allowed to co-opt eminent jurists, representatives of rights organisations and other members “it deems appropriate”.
Government constitutes committee comprising seven federal ministers to deliberate policy on #EnforcedDisappearances pic.twitter.com/9LVZMWkIvo
— Mubashir Zaidi (@Xadeejournalist) May 30, 2022
Enforced disappearances have long been documented by local and international rights groups in Pakistan, and in 2011, the government formed a commission of inquiry to document and investigate cases of the disappeared, known as “missing persons”.
Since 2011, the commission has received complaints in at least 8,154 cases, of which 2,274 remain unresolved, according to the commission’s report for September 2021.
The military and security agencies under it have repeatedly denied committing abuses, blaming the killings on an array of militant groups active in the resource-rich province that borders both Afghanistan and Iran.
But human rights groups have gathered some evidence from relatives of the disappeared that raises serious questions over the conduct of the security establishment.
‘LIVING GHOSTS’
The latest development came a day after IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah directed the government to serve notices on former president retired Gen. Pervez Musharraf and all successive chief executives, including Imran Khan and incumbent prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, for following an “undeclared tacit approval of the policy regarding enforced disappearances”.
In his order, passed in a case related to the disappearance of journalist Mudassar Naro, Justice Minallah said: “Gen. Musharraf and all other successor chief executives i.e. the former prime ministers, including the incumbent holder of the office shall submit their respective affidavits explaining why the court may not order proceedings against them for alleged subversion of the Constitution in the context of undeclared tacit approval of the policy regarding enforced disappearances and thus putting national security at risk by allowing the involvement of law enforcement agencies, particularly the armed forces.”
“Pervez Musharraf has candidly conceded in his autobiography, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, that ‘enforced disappearances’ was an undeclared policy of the state,” he recalled.
In November, rights group Amnesty International called for Pakistan to end the use of enforced disappearances as a tool of state policy, as it released a new briefing documenting the effect of such illegal abductions on the families of those who go missing.
The briefing, titled “Living Ghosts”, was released by the United Kingdom-based rights group on Monday, and is based on interviews with 10 family members of people “whose fate remains unknown after they were abducted by Pakistan’s security services”.
Researchers also spoke to the victims of enforced disappearances who have since been released.
“Enforced disappearance is a cruel practice that has caused indelible pain to hundreds of families in Pakistan over the past two decades,” said Rehab Mahamoor, Amnesty International’s acting South Asia researcher.
“On top of the untold anguish of losing a loved one and having no idea of their whereabouts or safety, families endure other long-term effects, including ill health and financial problems.”
