Sources added that the detainees would be allowed to meet their families thrice a week. PHOTO: OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS
At the same time, a mechanism has been devised allowing the relatives of ‘missing persons’ to meet their loved-ones in these detention centres. A mechanism has also been worked out for the recovery of missing persons, sources said.
The mechanism was agreed upon at a high-level meeting at the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP)’s office in Islamabad last Thursday. Representatives from the four provinces and other senior
officials were in attendance.
The move is seen as a giant leap towards easing the concerns of rights organisations and civil society activists about the plight of an unspecified number of missing persons particularly in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Officials concerned assured the AGP office of their cooperation in recovering the missing persons.
Sources added that the detainees would be allowed to meet their families thrice a week. Similarly, families would also be allowed to bring food items for the detainees in the internment centres.
Defence ministry officials assured the meeting that each case would be reviewed individually. They added that information would be collected from all concerned organisations and the AGP office would be informed accordingly through an affidavit. The affidavit would then be presented before the Supreme Court.
The meeting decided that intelligence agencies would not be directly quizzed about any missing person. All queries would be routed through the defence ministry which would reveal the factual position to all those requesting the information, sources added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2013.
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this should be welcome. talking about next step and prosecuting the ones who detained them is probably too much of a luxury at the moment.
it is good first step and the next step should be who violated their constitutional rights of defense in the court of law. If any intelligence agency is involved in kidnapping and incarceration of these prisoners then they should be brought to justice and face the law of the land otherwise these agencies are rough agencies and has complete disregard for the Constitution the country. No one should be above the law and that include all those intelligence agencies.
There is obviously need for a Missing Persons Commission on the lines of the Abbottabad Commission +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Another report to leak later on.
What about prosecution of people who lied under oath about these missing persons. And what about the thousands for whom Musharraf and his cohorts collected millions in prize money from the US? Pakistanis deserve an answer to these questions.
I imagine this change is in major part due to the new Attorney General Munir Malik. What was needed was commitment and power of pursuation.
Like so much else the term "missing persons" has a whole new meaning in Pakistan.
But I thought all these missing persons and people in internment camps was a figment of liberal fascists, ngo, human rights type, India loving peoples?