ISLAMABAD : Chairman of the Commission on missing persons Justice Rtd Javed Iqbal has said that cases of 1276 missing persons have been reported to them but neither the federal nor the provincial governments are cooperating with the commission.
Briefing Senate standing committee on Interior here on Monday, Justice Javed Iqbal said the situation in southern Punjab is alarming where people are disappearing on daily basis. He said UN working group has provided a list of 368 missing people from Karachi. However when an inquiry was held, it was found that 309 were in jails for involvement in different cases and they belonged to MQM.
He told the committee that secret agencies were cooperating with the commission. He said husbands of young women disappear after few months of their marriage who had to suffer by knocking doors of different institutions. Similarly mothers are worried about the fate of their children. He said Commission is the only forum which helps in the recovery of the missing persons.
Justice Javed Iqbal said the commission has under hearing 223 cases of missing persons from Punjab, 200 from Sindh, 96 from KPK, 654 from FATA , 53 from AJK, 11 from Gilgit Baltistan. He said with limited resources, the commission is working on self help basis.
He complained that when the commission holds inquiry about missing persons in Punjab, it is not provided any office space and it works in a hired room. He said the commission tried to meet Punjab home Minsiter Rana Sanaullah but the meeting could not materialize.
To a question, Justice Javed Iqbal said 96 cases of missing persons from Balochistan are before the commission. He said wrong figures about missing persons from Balochistan had been given. He said it was first reported that 18,000 people from Balochistan were missing and then the figure was brought down to 17,000. When the details of the missing persons were sought, no body turned up to give their details. He said most of the missing people from Balochistan are in Afghanistan and Geneva.
He disclosed that while funds were not released for the commission, a section officer of the interior ministry came to the office for Audit purposes.
The Senate committee assured the commission in its working and the chairman of the Committee Rehman Malik proposed to move a bill to give the commission constitutional cover. He directed the Chief Secretaries of the provinces to extend full cooperation to the commission and nominate special teams to resolve the issue of missing persons.
Rehman Malik said India was creating law and order situation in Balochistan under conspiracy to separate it from Pakistan. He said Indian secret agency’s personnel were using FC and Police uniforms to defame the state institutions.
He cautioned that our own institutions should not be blamed and said at the next meeting concerned institutions would be summoned for briefing.
Senator Israrullah Zehri said with the retirement of General Raheel Sharif, private armies have become active in Balochistan. He said the government should take serious notice of it.
The committee members staged a token walkout to protest against the absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan from the meeting.