ISLAMABAD: In accordance with a longstanding demand of rights activists, the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has given the Ministry of Human Rights a month to submit draft of a legislation to make enforced disappearances a cognisable offence under the Pakistan Penal Code. The directive was issued in the committee’s meeting on Tuesday. Earlier in the meeting held at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services with Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar in chair, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, the chairman of the Commission on Enforced Disappearances, made a detailed presentation on the matter. Iqbal maintained that all political parties raised their voice on the issue before coming to power, but when in power, the same parties appeared negligent. He also claimed that the issue had been politicised and that the situation was ‘not as bad as it is made out to be’. He said 5,290 new cases had been reported since 2011 of which 3,462 were disposed of till June 2018. The remaining 1,828 cases were still under investigation. On the issue of missing persons of Balochistan, Justice (retd) Iqbal said that the matter was not as straightforward as it seemed. He said in many cases those who had either joined militant outfits or moved abroad with leaders of Balochistan insurgency were counted among missing persons. Similarly, in other cases those kidnapped over tribal rivalries were counted. The commission head maintained that Mama Qadeer, the rights activist known for his long march against enforced disappearances, had yet to share any documents with him to substantiate his claim about 40,000 missing persons. In Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, Justice (retd) Iqbal insisted there were instances where personnel had left their homes to join militants like Sufi Mohammad, Manghal Bagh and Maulana Fazlullah but were counted among missing persons. He said on investigating a case of eight missing persons reported from Parachinar in Kurram district, the commission learnt that all eight were settled abroad where they were running successful businesses. In Sindh, there were 1,500 cases of which 1,364 had been solved. Most of these were related to the activists of Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), some of whom were in South Africa. He said the party had never responded to the commission’s questions in a satisfactory manner. Justice (retd) Iqbal said inquiries were made from Afghanistan whether there were any Pakistani citizens in their prisons in Paktika and Nangrahar, but the commission learnt that Afghan authorities exercised no control on the facilities and were helpless in that regard. About the cases registered with the United Nations, he said 564 of these 789 cases had been solved. Regarding action against law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Justice (retd) Iqbal maintained that it was beyond his mandate and the agencies fell under the Ministry of Defence. He told the committee that in at least 200 cases security agencies had taken action against their accused personnel. However, he added that the most efficient manner to deal with the cases of enforced disappearances would be under the ambit of the Parliament itself. Finally, he requested the committee to entrust the matter of missing persons to someone else since he was occupied with his responsibilities at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Earlier, the Senate committee observed that regardless of the nature of disappearances, it was the responsibility of the government to recover all such citizens. The committee also decided to seek data regarding the number of Pakistanis imprisoned in different countries from the Foreign Office. It directed the General Administration and Services secretary in Sindh to provide a proper office to the Commission to facilitate its work in the province. The committee also decided to visit internment centres maintained by the Commission to observe conditions for inhabitants. Also on Tuesday, The Senate committee was told that reports prepared on the matter of missing persons by Justice Mansoor Ali Khan and Justice Noor Muhammad were useful for understanding the issue. On this, Senator Khokhar directed the interior secretary to appear before the committee on the next meeting with the two reports. The meeting was attended by Senators Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Sassui Palijo,Usman Kakar, Tahir Bizenjo, Mehr Taj Durrani, Keshoo Bai, Sana Jamali, Hidayatullah as well as officials from the National Commission on Human Rights. Published in Daily Times, August 29th 2018.