Missing persons’ families reject govt’s compensation offer

The Sindh task force for missing persons held a meeting on Wednesday at the home department office where its members expressed their inability to locate the missing persons of Karachi and suggested that their heirs should accept financial compensation from the provincial government – an offer rejected by most of the families.

The task force met with home secretary Shakeel Mangnejo in the chair and considered the cases of missing persons recommended to it by the Missing Persons Commission

 The cases the task force considered cases of missing persons belonging to the city related to the period from 1992 to 2015.

The task force had called the aggrieved families the missing persons to inform about its findings at the home department and made them wait for hours before the meeting started.

The families were invited to attend the proceedings of task force at 11am but its proceedings began at 3pm.

The heirs were called one by one by the task force to inform about findings of the task force on the basis of reports submitted to it by the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies concerned.

The task force informed the families that in view of the reports, it would be an exercise in futility to further search for the missing persons.

The families were distressed over the decision and most of them refused to accept the government’s offer to accept the compensation in lieu of their loved ones.

They reacted that irrespective of any offer or incentive offered to them by the government, they would abandon the search for their missing family members.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lawmaker Mahfooz Yar Khan, who was present on the occasion, said his party would not accept the policy of financial compensation. He added that the MQM-P would not allow the government to close the files of its missing activists.

The mother of Irshad alias Mamoon, who has been missing from Garden area of the city since 2013, said she would not give up searching for her son at any cost as no offer could compensate for his disappearance.

The father of Farhan, another missing person, said he and his wife had been running from pillar to post for the last three months but could not find their son. He added that if his son was not taken into custody by the law-enforcement agencies, then where else had he gone. He said he would not give up searching for his son until a report on his present status was provided to him.