ISLAMABAD: A recently-constituted task force on missing people will hold its first meeting on Monday (July 29).

Headed by an additional secretary of the interior ministry, Athar Sial, the task force comprises home secretaries of the four provinces, additional attorney general, a member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, additional inspectors-general of special branches of the four provinces and additional chief secretaries.

The task force is mandated to formulate a national policy on the missing people, monitor the progress and coordinate efforts of all the stakeholders working on the issue.

The meeting will be attended by senior officers of the four provincial governments, intelligence agencies, ministries of defence and law, inspectors-general of police and chief commissioner of Islamabad.

The issue of missing people came to light in 2006 and the Supreme Court took suo motu notice in a case involving the disappearance of Masood Janjua and others.

In 2010, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court was constituted and it submitted its report on Dec 31, 2010.

In the last hearing of the case on July 23 the Supreme Court directed the government to submit its policy on the missing people in the shortest possible time and fixed Aug 2 as the next date of hearing.