‘Punjab has most missing person cases'

222 people, including doctors, engineers, students, have gone missing since 2009.

LAHORE:

Punjab has the highest number of missing people. As many as 222 cases were reported in the last two years, Amina Masood Janjua, the Defence of Human Rights chairperson, said on Friday.

She was speaking at a press conference at the Lahore Press Club where she said more cases of missing people were being reported now than under the previous regime.

She said that the families of the missing people were ready to leave the country if their loved ones were returned to them.

She said that people have been mysteriously disappearing from all parts of the country because they ‘followed the teachings of Islam’. She said that abductions of businessmen, students, engineers and doctors did not make any sense.

Janjua said that the government was facilitating America by abducting its own citizens and handing them over to the US. “The government is not unaware. They are willingly backing it,” she said.

She regretted that the commission formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan had yielded no results so far. She suggested that the government set up five commissions, one for each province. She appealed to the prime minister and president to take personal interest in the matter.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2011.