Commission on Enforced Disappearances be disbanded: Babar
Calls for allowing returning victims to depose before Senate Human Rights Committee
Farhatullah Babar. PHOTO: FILE
QUETTA:
The Commission on Enforced Disappearances should be disbanded and replaced with a new one comprising expert investigators, as during the last six years the existing commission has neither been able to identify the culprits involved in such disappearances nor registered a single FIR against anyone.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said this on Monday in Quetta where the Senate’s Human Rights Committee met to take stock of the situation of missing persons in Balochistan, persecution and killing of Hazaras and other issues.
83 cases of enforced disappearances reported this month, claims rights body
Chaired by Senator Nasreen Jalil, the meeting was also attended by senators Sitara Ayaz, Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini, Mir Kabir Shahi and Mufti Abdul Sattar. Addressing the members, Babar also called for making public the report of the first 2010 commission under Justice Mansoor Kamal that worked just for one year.
He said those missing persons who have returned home should be encouraged to depose before the Senate Committee on Human Rights with assurances of protection and confidentiality.
“Complete information about the inmates in 45 internment centres under Action in Aid of Civil Power be placed before the Senate Committee so as to proceed further in the matter,” he demanded.
Babar said military dictator General Pervez Musharraf had accepted in his biography that his regime captured 689 militants and handed over 369 of them to the US without trial for bounties of millions of dollars.
“Since Musharraf was not held accountable for this, some elements involved in abducting people may still think that they can also get away with impunity,” he said, adding that parliament should be informed about the details of those handed over by Musharraf to foreign countries.
The senator said for raising comfort level of the victims, they should be assured of protection as well as confidentiality of their statements before the committee.
“For raising comfort of the state agencies, which are often accused of involvement in enforced disappearances, the committee members should state on oath not to make public statements made before them by the recovered,” he added.
Chup: Issue of ‘missing persons’ makes it to Karachi’s theatre house
He said the Action in Aid of Civil Power was promulgated in 2011 but given retrospective effect from 2008 to enable the security agencies present those detained by them for years for their open trial.
He said the security agencies should now reciprocate by not obstructing the recovered persons from deposing before the Senate Committee in complete confidence.
“If it appeared that the recovered persons were obstructed from appearing before the committee it would only strengthen the lingering suspicion that invisible elements are more powerful than parliament, courts and the commission,” he warned.
The Commission on Enforced Disappearances should be disbanded and replaced with a new one comprising expert investigators, as during the last six years the existing commission has neither been able to identify the culprits involved in such disappearances nor registered a single FIR against anyone.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said this on Monday in Quetta where the Senate’s Human Rights Committee met to take stock of the situation of missing persons in Balochistan, persecution and killing of Hazaras and other issues.
83 cases of enforced disappearances reported this month, claims rights body
Chaired by Senator Nasreen Jalil, the meeting was also attended by senators Sitara Ayaz, Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini, Mir Kabir Shahi and Mufti Abdul Sattar. Addressing the members, Babar also called for making public the report of the first 2010 commission under Justice Mansoor Kamal that worked just for one year.
He said those missing persons who have returned home should be encouraged to depose before the Senate Committee on Human Rights with assurances of protection and confidentiality.
“Complete information about the inmates in 45 internment centres under Action in Aid of Civil Power be placed before the Senate Committee so as to proceed further in the matter,” he demanded.
Babar said military dictator General Pervez Musharraf had accepted in his biography that his regime captured 689 militants and handed over 369 of them to the US without trial for bounties of millions of dollars.
“Since Musharraf was not held accountable for this, some elements involved in abducting people may still think that they can also get away with impunity,” he said, adding that parliament should be informed about the details of those handed over by Musharraf to foreign countries.
The senator said for raising comfort level of the victims, they should be assured of protection as well as confidentiality of their statements before the committee.
“For raising comfort of the state agencies, which are often accused of involvement in enforced disappearances, the committee members should state on oath not to make public statements made before them by the recovered,” he added.
Chup: Issue of ‘missing persons’ makes it to Karachi’s theatre house
He said the Action in Aid of Civil Power was promulgated in 2011 but given retrospective effect from 2008 to enable the security agencies present those detained by them for years for their open trial.
He said the security agencies should now reciprocate by not obstructing the recovered persons from deposing before the Senate Committee in complete confidence.
“If it appeared that the recovered persons were obstructed from appearing before the committee it would only strengthen the lingering suspicion that invisible elements are more powerful than parliament, courts and the commission,” he warned.