ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) held a demonstration to mark the International Day of Involuntary and Enforced Disappeared Persons (IED) on Tuesday.

The demonstration was attended by a number of human rights activists, as well as the families of missing persons, politicians, academics and civil society.

Senators Afrasiab Khattak of the Awami National Party and Farhatullah Babar of the PPP were among those attending, and expressed solidarity with the families of missing persons. They said they would raise the enforced disappearances issue within their political parties and in parliament.

Prominent activist Amina Masood Janjua, who heads the Defence of Human Rights Organisation (DHRO) also spoke at the demonstration. The whereabouts of Ms Janjua’s husband, Masood Janjua, remain unknown after 11 years.

She recalled that when they were in the Opposition, PML-N leader and current prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and PTI’s Imran Khan – whose party is currently in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – visited her protest camp at D Chowk in solidarity and assured her they would return her husband and thousands of other missing persons when they came to power.

Activist Tahira Abdullah recalled that the DHRO had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2005, and the HRCP filed a petition in January 2007, which the chief justice had merged and had also taken suo motu notice.

Under the SC’s orders, the first commission of inquiry into IEDs was set up in 2010, but it did not receive the requisite level of powers, independence and autonomy.

Ms Abdullah demanded that the state sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances, and enact legislation to criminalise enforced disappearances. “If Sri Lanka could ratify it, why not Pakistan,” she asked.

Speakers also demanded that the authorities release all those detained illegally – whether in safe houses, prisons or in any kind of centre.

Parliamentarians and activists argued that if there is evidence or proof against individuals, they must be tried in court to uphold the rule of law.

Participants demanded that all the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on IEDs, which visited Pakistan in 2012, be implemented immediately.

Protesters also carried placards, and chanted slogans against the forced disappearances of citizens.

The HRCP has also said that large-scale enforced disappearances in South Asia can only be addressed if all of the region’s governments immediately criminalise this serious human rights violation.

The HRCP said that in Pakistan, the practice of enforced disappearances has become a nationwide problem in recent years.

While most prevalent in Balochistan, the federally and provincially administered tribal areas and KP, a number of cases are now also reported from Sindh. To date, not a single perpetrator has been held to account.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2016