Enforced disappearances: Two-week deadline set for federal govt, provinces

Top court seeks explanation from Balochistan govt on burial of deceased without telling heirs

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has issued notices to the federal and provincial governments, asking them to submit details of missing persons in their respective provinces within two weeks.

Taking notice of the burial of missing persons’ bodies, the court also sought a report from Balochistan government about the process of keeping bodies in mortuaries.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, was hearing the application of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) chief Nasrullah Baloch. The bench pointed out that the ‘missing persons’ is a national issue, which will be resolved.



Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja said that they did not have the exact data of missing persons all over the country. He referred to a media report that a large number of missing persons were in Punjab. He called upon the government to devise a strategy to resolve the issue.

Up to 1,265 cases of missing persons are still pending with the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED) as of December 31, 2014. The commission – while submitting a summary on cases of alleged forced disappearances to the interior ministry and 12 other departments – said it disposed of 1,098 missing persons’ cases from March 2011 to December 2014, adding 28 cases of missing persons were registered and 52 cases disposed of in the month December.

CIED has been working in the country for the last four years. In September 2013, the federal government appointed Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal as its chairman.

However, Defence of Human Rights (DHR) claimed that the number of missing persons is 5,149 until December, 2014. The organization, which is working on enforced disappearances in the country, has also stated that 252 cases of missing persons surfaced in 2014.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2015.