State Must Act Against Those Involved In Enforced Disappearances: Speakers

News Desk

Islamabad: Speakers at a discussion session, held in connection with International Day on Enforced Disappearances, urged the state to act against those involved in enforced disappearances.

The event was organized by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in Islamabad on Thursday. The session was attended by human rights defenders and activists from across Pakistan.

HRCP Council member former senator Farhatullah Babar informed participants of developments so far and suggested this serious human rights violation may be ended.

PPP Babar said in order to tackle the problem of enforced disappearances a new legal architecture is needed, the central pillar of which should be to bring the state intelligence apparatus under the ambit of the law and stop them from acting like a state within state.

Laws prohibiting illegal abduction and detention already existed and thousands of FIRs have already been registered. But there is no progress because the agencies allegedly involved in it are themselves beyond the law, Babar informed the participants.

No matter whatever legislation is introduced if agencies are not under any law and their mandate is not determined, no purpose will be served by criminalizing disappearances, he maintained.

In Dec 2015, the Senate Committee of the whole made nearly half a dozen proposals. Under the rules, the government should have either implemented the recommendations or reverted to the Senate stating reasons why it could not implement them. Picking up the threads from those unanimous recommendations endorsed by the whole Senate would at least open the dialogue.

The Commission on Enforced Disappearances has also failed miserably. In not one case has it been able to prosecute a perpetrator of the crime, even though the law under which it was set up requires it to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators. The Commission should be disbanded and a new one set up.

During court hearings, it transpired that a number of disappeared persons were locked up in opaque internment centers in ex-tribal areas and in KP under army control.

In 2019, the Peshawar High Court had declared them illegal and ordered that these be placed under the control of police.

However, the SC stayed the PHC order. No hearing in the case has been held since December 2019 and enforcedly disappeared persons continue to be lodged in these Guantanamo Bay like prisons without any access to legal defence counsel or visitation rights for the families.

There have been complaints of custodial deaths and torture in these centres, but these have not been investigated. We urge the SC to take up the case on urgent basis.

An inadequate Bill was moved in the National Assembly in June 2021 to address the issue, but even that Bill seems to have disappeared.

Although it acknowledged the crime of enforced disappearance and defines it as “an unlawful or illegal deprivation of liberty by an agent of the state”, it did not define the mandate of intelligence agencies allegedly behind the crime, which has made it hugely problematic.

The setting up of a Ministerial Subcommittee by the present government on the issue is a step in the right direction.

The Committee should also undertake visits of all provinces and meet the victims’ families who should be compensated. We expect the Ministerial Subcommittee to propose a comprehensive legislation in consultation with all stakeholders.

Enforced Disappearances must be treated as a separate autonomous crime. A separate legal mechanism needs to be provided for taking up complaints, holding perpetrators accountable and providing for compensation to the aggrieved families.

Ratification of the International Convention for Protection against Enforced Disappearances must form part of the new legal architecture.

In mid-1960’s a military ruler made an amendment, 2 (1) (d), in the Army Act to give powers to the army to investigate and try civilians in military courts in some cases. Such a law does not exist even in Indian Occupied Kashmir or Israel.

Defence of Human Rights Head Amina Masood Janjua said that enforced disappearance was a grave crime which must be taken very seriously. Some powerful state institutions had been found involved in it but, unfortunately, the state had failed to make them accountable for their unlawful actions.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has also miserably failed to achieve its objective. The Chairperson of the Commission has been accused of harassing and intimidating female complainants who came to him to lodge complaints about their missing family members. Worse, the authorities have failed to realize the sensitivity of the issue and promptly act against the suspected harasser.

Rather they have initiated legal action against those parliamentarians who demanded an independent, transparent investigation into the matter. Now the only hope lay with the higher courts of the country, particularly the Islamabad High Court whose chief justice seems committed to recover missing persons and to provide justice to their families, Ms Janjua concluded.

Human Rights Advocate Imaan Mazari briefed the participants about the incidents of enforced disappearances of Baloch students and ongoing efforts for their safe recovery. Ms Imaan deplored the fact the even adolescents are not being spared, and that on 17 May a17-year-old student had been picked up from Rawalpindi. She said that the Ministerial Commission formed in April this year to look into the cases of harassment and disappearances of students has yet to hold even its first meeting.

The Commission of Inquiry has proved to be totally ineffective and done little to recover missing persons and put an end to this cruel practice. She called for the disbandment of the Commission.