ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Human Rights on Thursday discussed the disappearance of a Turkish family working for the Pak-Turk Schools and decided to summon officials of federal and provincial governments to its next meeting. Senator Farhatullah Babar brought up the issue, stating that the specter of vanishing citizens had now extended to foreigners. He called for immediate parliamentary intervention. The committee unanimously agreed. Some members suggested that victims’ families should also be invited. However, it was decided that in the first instance, relevant officials be asked to brief the committee and provide answers to the questions arising out of the facts that had so far come to surface. The committee meeting was presided over by Senator Nasreen Jalil. Senators Mohsin Leharai, Nisar Muhammad Khan, Sitara Ayaz, Karim Ahmad Khawaja, Samina Saeed, Kalsoom Perveen, Sehar Kamran and Farhatullah Babar were also present. The meeting took up agenda items including the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights ) Bill 2017 and payment of compensation to affectees released recently from Bagram Prison in Afghanistan. Later, Farhatullah Babar also submitted a call attention notice and a motion on the disappearance of Mesut Kacmaz family from Lahore on September 27. “The style and manner of kidnapping bears the signatures of all too familiar kidnappings brazenly taking place in the country with alarming impunity,” the notice said. “The Pak-Turkish Schools network in Pakistan earned state ire in the wake of failed coup in Turkey and witnessed a massive crack down recently. This background makes it even more urgent before a sinister narrative gains currency that the state itself might be involved,” it said. The issue of enforced disappearance is also listed in the agenda of the requisitioned session of Senate on September 10. According to details, the family was picked up by over a dozen armed people in plain clothes including women. Hooded and handcuffed, they were bundled into a wagon and driven away. Senator Mohsin Leghari said that Pakistan should not become a party to internal political wrangling in Turkey. The meeting decided to set up a subcommittee with Senator Sitara Ayaz as convener and Nisar Khan and Mir Kabir Shahi as members to report on the Transgender Bill. The issue of compensation to Bagram Prison affectees was deferred till the next meeting. Published in Daily Times, October 6th 2017.