KARACHI, Dec 6: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed grave concern over the disappearance phenomenon in the country and lauded the recent decision of the Supreme Court for taking a suo motu action on the issue.
Speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday afternoon, HRCP Chairman Iqbal Haider said the phenomena had become a rising trend over the last few years, leading to denial of people’s civil liberties, constitutional and human rights.
In this regard, Mr Haider referred to the UN General Assembly’s declaration on the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances, saying that any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity.
“It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he added.
According to the Article 2 of this declaration, he said, no state should practice, permit or tolerate enforced disappearances while Article 4 of the declaration clearly stated that all acts of enforced disappearances would be offences under criminal law punishable by appropriate penalties which should take into account their extreme seriousness.
He said according to reports received by the HRCP about 400 citizens had been abducted. Out of them, the HRCP verified 241 cases of enforced disappearances, he added.A list of prominent cases of abducted and disappeared citizens verified by the HRCP was also distributed among newsmen. The list included names of activists belonging to nationalist parties of Sindh and Balochistan, their student wings and various religious groups. A few of them are Ali Mohammad from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Munir Mengal a TV journalist and businessman, Chetan Kumar (Umerkot), Maulana Hydayatullah (Gulshan-i-Iqbal), Muzzafar Bhutto (Jamshoro), Dr Safdar Sarki (Gulistan-i-Jauhar), Gohram Saleh (Mekran), Raja Ahmed Khan (Turbat), Qari Mohammad Alam (Super Highway), Dr Hanif Sharif (Turbat), Dr Naqibullah Durrani, an Afghan who came to Karachi, Abid Raza Zaidi (Gulbahar) and Ali Asghar Bangulzai (Quetta).
Mr Haider regretted that innumerable protests and condemnation from all sections of society had fallen on deaf ears of the authorities, saying that law enforcement agencies undeterred by any law or consequences were continuing to pursue their illegal and inhuman activities with immunity.
The HRCP chief lauded the Supreme Court for taking suo motu notice of the rapidly increasing cases of disappearance. As a result of this intervention, out of the list of 40 missing people provided to the court, only 20 missing citizens were found and the honourable court had expressed its disappointment and disapproval of this practice and directed the law enforcement agencies to produce the remaining disappeared persons in the next hearing.
He urged the federal and provincial governments and law enforcement agencies to ensure strict compliance in letter and spirit with the UN declaration on the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances.
Some of the relatives of the abducted persons were also present in the press conference. Emotional scenes were witnessed when they narrated how their family members were whisked away by the personnel of agencies. Among them included wives of Rauf Sausuli, Salim Baloch of Jamhoori Watan Party, Goharam Saleh, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch.
Also present in the press conference were HRCP’s Sindh chapter chief Zuhra Yusuf, Tahir Mohammad advocate from Balochistan and council members Hasan Iqbal Butt and Amarnat advocate.
The HRCP is focusing on the issue of disappearances throughout this week before the International Human Rights Day to be observed on December 10.
