KARACHI: A provincial law officer on Tuesday informed the Sindh High Court that a summary had been sent to the chief minister for sanctioning one-time compensation to the families of 12 missing persons whose cases fell within the category of enforced disappearance.

However, the counsel for petitioners sought monthly compensation for such families in line with an order of the Islamabad High Court.

On the last hearing, the SHC had directed the provincial authorities to inform it about the compensation policy for the families of missing persons.

When the bench took up a dozen of identical petitions seeking recovery of missing persons for hearing on Tuesday, Additional Advocate General Zeeshan Adhi submitted a copy of the summary sent to the chief minister for approval.

It proposed in the summary that fund amounting to Rs6 million may be sanctioned for distribution among the families of 12 missing persons at the rate of Rs500,000 per family outside the budget during current financial year and placed at the disposal of home department for disbursement to the closest nominated kin of the families through the Karachi commissioner after completion of all codal formalities.

It further contended that 12 persons went missing since 2013 onwards and reportedly links with banned organizations including MQM-London and they remained untraced by the joint investigation teams (JITs) while their families appeared before the provincial task force for missing persons and narrated the hardship they have been facing since disappearances of their loved ones.

It further said in the summary that previously, provincial government had also allowed a compensation of Rs500,000 to each family of 25 missing persons as financial assistance in 2018.

However, Advocate Jibran Nasir, the amicus curiae and lawyer for the petitioners, submitted that a monthly compensation might be given to the families in line with the order passed by IHC and upheld by the Supreme Court.

The AAG undertook that after getting a copy of the order, he would consult the issue with the relevant authority and submit the report at next hearing.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2022