Daily Times

Imran Khan, the unofficial Prime Minister-elect of Pakistan, has a powerful electoral base in FATA, Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, Balochistan and now even Sindh. These are the areas where the issue of enforced disappearance is of critical significance; explicitly or implicitly, Imran Khan must vow to end this phenomenon to create goodwill with the people who have voted him in power.

This year, I came across the family and friends of a missing person for the first time in my journalistic career.

Raza Mahmood Khan, a peace activist based in Lahore, went missing in the December of, 2017.

His friends worked tirelessly to organize a series of protests to bring him back. Authorities recommended that they remain calm, but they feared that if the issue dies down; Raza might never return.

When Raza went missing in December last year, there were only a dozen or so people, who knew him personally, in the first protest.

However, gradually, the movement to ‘bring Raza back’ strengthened. Progressive student groups and activists joined the cause and helped organize events in Lahore. When a camp was organized outside the Lahore Press Club in March, instead of two dozen, over a hundred people were present. A small group of lawyers, a few representatives of the Women Action Forum, South Asian Partnership, and students from the Progressive Students Collective were there. Punjabi writer Iqbal Qaiser expressed his solidarity with Raza, whom he has known for many years. Farooq Tariq and Mohammad Tahseen were incorrigible in their criticism of these disappearances. IA Rehman, who has been present on nearly every protest since Raza’s disappearance, also spoke against these abductions.

At the end of the day, how successful are these disappearances when it comes to meeting any objective? In fact, they only intensify the conflict and add to the public’s grievances

Mir Muhammad Talpur, an old friend of the missing Baloch and Manzoor Pashteen, now a well-known opponent of enforced disappearances of the Pushtun joined in on a telephonic address. The protests to find Raza also mentioned some of the missing persons from Sindh and Balochistan, identifying it as a growing national horror. Hence, this campaign to recover a Lahore-based activist has now connected with those working for “missing persons” all over Pakistan.

Another contributing factor to the growing support for Raza, is the rise of the Pashtun Tahaffuz March (PTM). One of the main demands of PTM’s January sit-ins in Islamabad and across Pakistan is the eradicate isolated disappearances, of Pakistani citizens. Majority of those abducted come from Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, and FATA. Many of them are of course Pashtun and previously, they had little access to voice their plight on mainstream Pakistani media and politics.

This movement strengthened after the illegal abduction and in-custody murder of a Karachi-based Pashtun student Naqeebullah Mehsud. The Pashtuns are now holding protests across Pakistan, protesting against the discrimination they face and the state-sponsored violence they have been suffering since the early 2000s.

The problem of enforced disappearances has intensified. The abductions have increased in numbers and target to a varying class of Pakistanis; social media influencers, political party affiliates, journalists and peace activists like Raza Khan. At the start of 2017, four bloggers were famously abducted but that had to be released due to public pressure. In September last year, Maryam Nawaz claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-N’s (PMLN) members were abducted and threatened before the rigorously contested elections of NA-120 in Lahore.

A month after this, PMLN alleged that some members of its social media wing had gone missing. At least two were later confirmed to be in the custody of FIA. Former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif protested against this unprecedented aberration. Recently, high-profile journalist Gul Bukhari went missing and was returned after a few hours.

Raza Khan has thankfully returned, these last eight months have been frustrating, tiring and sad for Raza Mahmood Khan’s friends and family members. Enforced disappearances are a relic of the war on terror waged under the Musharraf regime. There is no room for them in the democratic Pakistan of today.

The UN General Assembly resolution 47/133 notes that “enforced disappearance undermines the deepest values of any society committed to respecting the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and that the systematic practice of such acts is of the nature of a crime against humanity.”

At the end of the day, how successful are these disappearances when it comes to meeting any objective? In fact, they only intensify the conflict and add to the public’s grievances.

Since most of the missing persons come from areas outside of Punjab, it gives those communities, ethnicities, and provinces the image that they are being discriminated against. People from Sindh, FATA, and Balochistan often hold this grievance against the central as well as the Punjab government. They believe that the government focuses on the safety and well-being of Punjabis who are more than half of Pakistan’s population. However, Imran Khan is an ethnic Pushtun based in Punjab. He should leverage his unique background and help the otherwise helpless “missing persons”.

These people seek the help of government institutions and the judiciary in protecting them but return without hope. Imran Khan must address their grievances. Enforced disappearances are illegal and unfair. They weaken the federation, increase the public frustration and fail the justice system.

The writer is staff member Daily Times

Published in Daily Times, August 5^th 2018.