KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the secretaries of interior and defence to collect reports from internment centres about the persons categorised as “enforced disappearances”.

The SHC also ordered the provincial authorities to provide financial assistance to the families of such missing persons.

When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto took up a set of identical petitions seeking recovery of missing persons for hearing, it was informed that a joint investigation team (JIT) and provincial task force (PTF) for missing persons had categorised various persons as “enforced disappearances”.

Thereafter, the bench questioned the reasons behind those enforced disappearances and the whereabouts of such persons as well as the material on the basis of which the categorisation was made.

An investigating officer submitted that the categorisation was carried out on the basis of statements recorded by the police as well as the discussions held before the JIT and PTF.

The bench in an order, passed in a petition filed in 2015, said “The case of missing person has been determined as ‘enforced disappearance’. Yet it is not certain that in which internment centre the missing person has been detained. Yet reports are not received from the ministries of interior and defence, government of Pakistan, Islamabad.”

About financial help, a representative of home department Sindh submitted that financial assistance to the families of such persons had been approved by the provincial government in some cases while various such matters were also under process.

The bench noted that since the cases of various missing persons had been categorised as “enforced disappearance”, the secretaries of ministries of interior and defence were directed to collect reports from the agencies/departments/internment centres working under their control and submit the same in court or else to appear or file affidavits on the next date of hearing.

In another identical petition filed in 2016, the bench in its order said, “In the JIT and PTF sessions the case of missing person has been categorised as ‘enforced disappearance’. Now, the question arises that in which internment centre the missing person is held. DAG [deputy attorney general] seeks time to call fresh reports from the secretaries, ministries of interior and defence, government of Pakistan, Islamabad”.

In a yet another similar petition submitted in 2015, the IO submitted that the case of missing person had been described as “enforced disappearance”.

“When the investigating officer was asked that what the material on the basis of which the case of missing person has been declared as ‘enforced disappearance’, IO replied that it was on the basis of statements, which were recorded by IO and discussion held before the JIT and PTF”, the bench added.

Initially in 2021, the SHC had put the federal and provincial governments on notice with direction to apprise it as to how the families of the missing persons could be provided with financial assistance in the cases where the family heads had gone missing and families were suffering due to financial crises.

In April 2022, a provincial law officer had informed the SHC that one-time compensation of Rs500,000 for each family of 12 missing persons, whose cases fell within the category of “enforced disappearance”, was being provided.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2024