Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi went to different cities including Shahr Gwadar of Balochistan after assuming office. In his visit, apart from district judges, there were meetings with representatives of lawyers’ organizations.
It was brought to his knowledge that the cases of missing persons have been pending in various High Courts for years. Relatives of legally missing persons can approach the High Court concerned under Article 199 of the Constitution. However, the facts show that relief is not being obtained from the concerned courts.
According to the Police Act, if a person goes missing, his family members have the right to file an FIR in the relevant police station within 24 hours, but the family members of the missing persons held sit-ins in Karachi, Quetta, Gwadar and Turbat during the last year, but this problem still persists. exists In a ruling of the Islamabad High Court, the definition of missing persons was that any citizen who is abducted by government officials will be called a missing person.
Attempts have been made over the past 15 years to file cases against government officials regarding missing persons, some of which have been successful, but the problem has not been fully resolved. A few years ago, a citizen in Karachi approached the district court to recover his missing loved one. On the order of the court, an FIR was registered against unknown officials. The concerned police had also published an advertisement in the newspapers, on which the concerned officers came under fire.
Under the orders of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, a commission was established under the chairmanship of former Justice Javed Iqbal. This commission performed its duties very slowly. Human rights organizations also distrusted former Justice Javed Iqbal, but when former Chief Justice Faiz Isa was hearing the case of missing persons, the federal administration issued a notification to extend the term of the commission comprising Justice Retired Javed Iqbal.
This showed that the federal government was also following the previous governments and ignoring the importance of this most important issue. During the periods of different governments, one or two incidents of disappearance of citizens without legal requirements were reported in the newspapers, but with the beginning of the new century, reports of disappearances of members of the Murri tribe began to emerge in Balochistan. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the US and allied forces attacked Kabul and after the fall of the Taliban government, reports of missing people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa started coming.
During the era of President Pervez Musharraf, important people belonging to Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan were arrested and handed over to the United States. Some of them were held at Guantanamo Bay. Last year, a Pakistani citizen was released from this prison after 10 years.
Many people went missing in Balochistan in the first two decades of this century. The number of these people has been revealed by leading domestic and foreign organizations for the protection of relatives and human rights. A new series of disappearances of people also started from the urban and rural areas of Sindh. Information from various social media platforms indicates that 5,000 to 7,000 people are missing across the country.
The issue of missing persons is constantly being discussed in the upper house of the Senate. Speaking in the Senate last week, Senator John Bledi from the National Party said that the problem has become so serious that people from different areas of Balochistan are protesting. He told the members of the Senate that there is a protest in the coastal city of Gwadar on the appeal of unity of all parties. These people are protesting for the recovery of missing persons and the rights of Gwadar fishermen.
John Bledi also said that civilian space is being reduced to prevent protests over the missing persons issue. He said that political issues can be resolved only through political dialogue. Federal Law Minister Nazir Tarar while responding to the speeches of the senators said that the issue of missing persons is the biggest challenge for the Prime Minister and the present government.
We believe that the Pakistani state is committed to democratic principles and all legal requirements will be met to resolve this issue. Mr. Tarar reminded that the responsibility of law and order lies with the provincial governments, but the Federation is ready to fully cooperate in this regard and the Federation can intervene in any province to improve law and order under Article 245 of the Constitution. . JUI Senator Kamran Murtaza, participating in the discussion, said that the cases of missing persons are increasing with the passage of time. It was also informed in the Senate meeting that about 135 cases of missing persons are pending in Sindh.
The European Union has repeatedly urged the government of Pakistan to enact legislation to address the issue of missing persons. The former government had prepared a draft law in this regard, but the then Human Rights Minister Dr. Shireen Mazari suddenly announced one day that the draft was missing from the Senate Secretariat. The Sindh High Court has ordered to pay compensation to the families of the missing persons.
The federal government had formulated a policy based on high court judgments that clarified the procedure for compensating the families of missing persons, but the affected families of Balochistan are not ready to accept this compensation. Elders of these families say that we do not want compensation, we want our loved ones back. The federal government should now prepare a clear action plan in this regard.
