The Pakhtun politicoreligious syndicate Amn Jirga has not said anything out of the ordinary by calling on the government to declare enforced disappearances a crime. While the democratic institutions are better suited to discuss the rest of its agenda regarding the empowerment of civilian institutions and extortion payments to militant outfits, Pakistan can no longer stay blind to the undeniable violations of human rights law. That Pakistan was wrestled from the colonial rule as a functional democracy, not a hush-hush theocracy, has often been stressed upon by the judiciary and the politicians alike. As gavels courageous judges like Justice Gulzar Ahmed have pounded against the state’s performance on missing person cases, Senator Farhatullah Babar did not bat an eyelid before linking down the institutional menace to the heavy-handed approach of General Pervaiz Musharraf. However, acknowledging a problem might pass as a commendable first step, but the journey does not and cannot end here. The National Assembly Bill on the criminalisation of enforced disappearances took some obscure turn on its merry way to the Senate and remains missing to this day. Political parties raise a great hue and cry by sympathising with the family members of the victims when sitting on the opposition benches but their lofty promises have a habit of sliding through the backdoor the day they walk on the red carpet. The tool of terror is no longer confined to military dictatorships but did prompt the strongest-ever human rights convention (Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances) to be adopted by the UN. So, when hapless family victims step onto the street to ask their country, or their state for the whereabouts of their dear ones, the right approach is to do everything possible to launch an immediate yet comprehensive investigation. Tightening screws and unleashing batons cannot silence them, but would, definitely, trigger a hundred more voices to speak for their rights. Both, at home and abroad. It is one thing to deny them access to justice but the cruel, inhumane treatment substantially feeds into the already rife reservations about the lesser humans’ characterizations accorded to Baluchs and Pashtuns. Here’s to accepting and treating all Pakistanis as equal parts of the flag. *