ISLAMABAD - The commission on missing persons is set to move a request to incumbent government for giving the body a status of proper bureau to deal with longstanding cases from different parts of the country.
The commission members have felt the importance to give the body a proper status of bureau observing that it could be beneficial to deal with missing person cases if happened in future.
The commission, which has disposed of over 900 cases in three years, had completed a report to submit before Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif but recently given extension of one more year.
This final report will now be submitted to the prime minister next year. The compiled report will now be considered as interim report.
Talking to The Nation, Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, head of the commission on missing persons, also expressed his willingness to request the government for converting the commission in a proper body. “We have still not float any request to government on this matter,” he remarked.
It would not be out of place to mention here that the commission had also fixed responsibility in the report. It was also ascertained while compiling the report that some cases were not genuine other fall in category of kidnapping for ransom, old enmities, rival group clashes etc.
Sources said the three-member commission had also recently included one more person Justice (Retd) Ghuas Muhammad, whic was recently approved by prime minister.
The commission has so far disposed of 902 cases, most of which are from Sindh province. The cleared cases 91 are from Sindh, over 100 from Balochistan, 19 from Punjab and 29 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
There are large number of pending 679 cases from Khyber Pakhtunkha(KP), 239 from Sindh, 219 from Punjab, 26 from ICT, four from Fata, nine from AJK and one from Gilgit and a large number from Balochistan due to certain reasons.
A three-member commission was constituted a couple of years before to make a detailed report on missing persons of all over the country, including Balochistan, by mentioning real facts and fixing responsibility.
The commission, which recently got one year extension, facing many hardships has still been working to recover the remaining 113 missing persons of Balcohistan but many of the mentioned missing persons reportedly could be in Afghanistan’s lawless areas and in jails like Paktika jail.
Around 750 cases from Balochistan were referred by different organisations and individuals but a large number of these cases were not falling in the category of missing persons.