ISLAMABAD: Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari says Pakistan is moving forward in its commitment to criminalise enforced disappearances.
Today ‘International Day of the Disappeared’ we are moving forward in our commit to criminalize Enforced Disappearances. There can never be any place for ED in a democracy. Our bill has been approved unanimously by NA SC on Interior last week. Sadly time was lost because no previous govt moved on ED, she said.
In a series of tweets on the occasion of International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, she said a bill on enforced disappearances, prepared in consultations with the stakeholders, has been approved unanimously by National Assembly s Standing Committee on Interior.
Our bill was done after consultation with stakeholders, the minister stated.
“In our first meeting at the Ministry of Human Rights, we had the then PPP chair of the Senate human rights committee participate. Once introduced in NA it was available on NA website so to say no one knew the content is absurd. No one objected on the floor of the NA or in the committee,” she said.
The minister said there can never be any place for enforced disappearances in a democracy.
Dr Shireen Mazari said Prime Minister Imran Khan met Baloch families of disappeared who shared their list of missing family members. She said some have since returned home while others are being traced.
The minister also hit out at former governments for their lack of response on the issue. “[I] can’t recall any PML-N or PPP prime minister in the last two governments even recognising enforced disappearances, let alone meeting with these families.”
In June, the PPP said the bill introduced by the government in the National Assembly to curb the practice of enforced disappearances would not end the menace as it required further deliberation and amendment.
PPP’s Farhatullah Babar was of the view that enforced disappearances must be treated as a separate autonomous crime and that a separate legal mechanism was needed for taking up complaints, holding perpetrators accountable and for providing compensation to the aggrieved families.
“The amendment bill does not meet these requirements,” he had said.
The PPP secretary-general had also cautioned against rushing through the bill and called for inviting all stakeholders to the relevant standing committee of the National Assembly or holding of public hearings.
On January 19, the Islamabad High Court observed that the prime minister and his cabinet were responsible for ‘enforced disappearances’ in the federal capital, and sought a list of prime ministers who held the office since 2015.
