Govt forms committee to investigate enforced disappearances

The Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf government has formed a committee to investigate the rising number of enforced disappearances in the country.

The committee has been formed under the convener ship of Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem.

The Ministry of Interior has issued a notice in this regard.

According to the notice issued, the committee will also give recommendations on how to control the rising number of enforced disappearances.

The members of the committee are the federal law minister, federal minister for human rights, advisor to the prime minister on accountability and interior, Chief Commissioner ICT, IG Islamabad, and representatives of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Last week a briefing paper titled “Entrenching Impunity, Denying Redress: The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan” was issued by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) which stated that the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) had failed to address the issue of enforced persons in Pakistan.

The commission was constituted in March 2011 with a mandate to trace the whereabouts of missing persons and fix responsibility on individuals or organizations responsible for the disappearances of such persons.

The commission is headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal.

The paper also stated that although the COIED had traced the whereabouts of missing persons in a number of cases, there had been no apparent effort to fix responsibility for this heinous crime committed in Pakistan. “This commission has failed in holding even a single perpetrator of enforced disappearance responsible in its nine years,” said Ian Seiderman, the ICJ legal and policy director. “A commission that does not address impunity, nor facilitate justice for victims and their families, can certainly not be considered effective,” he added.