ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Human rights activists staged a protest demonstration here on Saturday to press the government to produce in court what they described as victims of “enforced disappearances” belonging mostly to autonomy-seeking nationalist parties of Balochistan.

The demonstration was jointly organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Defence of Human Rights and other non-governmental organisations in front of the Parliament House.

Human rights groups say that of 242 people missing since 2000, 110 are from Balochistan, 70 from Sindh, 42 from Punjab and 20 from the NWFP.

“Every week, we are getting something like three new incidents. We have been able to verify, to date, 250 people -- from 2002 up till now,” HRCP chief Asma Jahangir told the Reuters news agency at the rally.

Several relatives of missing people joined dozens of rights activists for the protest outside parliament.

Seventy-year-old Abdul Ghaffar Parwana, who biked in from Peshawar to take part in the demonstration, told Dawn that his son, Abdul Sattar, had been picked up on Feb 28, 2001. He added that his son was a wagon driver.

“I still have no clue as to the whereabouts of my son,” he said.

A Rawalpindi-based elderly woman, Zainab Khatoon, said her son, Faisal Faraz, a mechanical engineer by profession, “disappeared” on his way to Rawalpindi from Lahore on July 20, 2005.

Nine-year-old Khaula Ali said her father, Ali Hasan, a former serviceman, had been picked up from their house in Lahore on June 22, 2004.

"Initially we were told that he would soon come back, but we are still waiting for his release,” she said.

"We want to celebrate Eid with our father," said Mr Hasan’s three-year-old son.

“Uncle president, please find my loving daddy,” read a placard held by 10-year-old Ayesha whose father has been missing since last year.

Some protesters chanted “Stop state-terrorism” and “Free the innocents”. Police looked on but there was no trouble.

Misbah Irum Rana, 12-year old British-born girl who is at the centre of an international custody tussle between her divorced parents, also showed up to express solidarity with the families of missing persons.

"I want justice for myself as well as for the people of Pakistan," she told reporters.

An activist from Balochistan, where nationalist parties are waging a campaign for more political and economic rights, said the situation there was grave.