Ice melts on missing persons issue

Govt announces Rs5 million 'support package' for each affected family

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet on Friday approved a support package of Rs5 million per family to provide legal and financial assistance to the heirs of missing persons on the recommendations of two committees set up on the issue.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told a news conference that the cabinet also decided to constitute a committee to prepare a mechanism for disbursement of the financial assistance to the affected families and resolved to take measures, including legislation, to stop the incidents of disappearances in future.

"Each family of the missing persons would be given a grant of Rs5 million to address their financial troubles," the minister, after the cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. "The state is committed to address the issue and will use its all resources to resolve the issue."

The minister stated that the cabinet reviewed the final report of the two previous committees and approved the constitution of a special committee to examine genuine cases of the families of the missing persons, who needed financial support.

"It has been recommended 1,000 cases out of over 2,000, which fall under a legal mechanism and beyond a five-year limit be taken up on priority," he said. "This is an amount being given to the families of missing persons and cannot be reclaimed if the person reunited with his family," he added.

According to the minister, the National Database Regulatory Authority (NADRA) and revenue authorities would be given instructions to address the problems of these families pertaining bank accounts, inheritance and property.

According to government sources, this decision was taken by a commission headed by Tarar in the previous coalition government. The commission, formed under the Inquiry Act, had the data of 2,269 persons, they added.

According to data, there were 1,681 missing persons in Punjab, of which 1,418 cases were resolved, 263 cases were pending and 56 cases were in courts; 1,823 missing persons were in Sindh, of which 1,645 cases had been resolved, while 178 cases were pending and 232 were in the court.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the sources said, there were 3,548 missing persons cases, of which 2,231 had been resolved, 1,317 unresolved and 203 were in court. In Balochistan, the number of such cases was 2,798, of which 2,623 cases had been resolved, while 436 were still pending, and three were in courts.

Islamabad had 381 cases, of which 322 had been resolved, 59 still pending and 31 in courts. Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) had 70 cases, of which 56 had been resolved and 14 were pending. There were 10 cases in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) out of which eight were solved and 2 cases still remaining.

A commission was formed under the Inquiries Act in 2011 to address the issue of missing persons and so far, 78% of cases of enforced disappearance had been resolved. According to the sources, the government, human rights organisations and the civil society worked hard to solve the problem.

The sources said that the government had started support for the families of the missing persons so that it could lessen their suffering. "The government is taking measures for the families of missing persons under the 'State Motherhood Policy'," one source said..

According to the sources, some of the missing persons fell prey to terrorism, some joined the terrorists, and killed in the operations. "The Chhipa and the Edhi volunteers had buried 44,000 unidentified bodies since 2010," the source pointed out.

Giving a comparison, the source pointed out that there were 347,000 missing people in India; 193,000 in America and 241,000 in Great Britain. Out of a total of 10,311 cases of missing persons in the country, 8,042 cases had been solved, 2,269 remained unresolved and 525 cases were pending in courts.

Tarar said that due to the terrorism, the country had been facing various internal challenges, adding that several complex reasons were behind these disappearances. "State institutions extended positive cooperation and they wanted to address this issue under legal framework," he said.

"A number of cases were addressed through the CoIED [Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances]. The state is committed to address this issue and will use its all resources for this. Despite heinous allegations, the state has taken laudable measures to give relief to the families."

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)