HRCP, IPSS seminar for criminalising enforced disappearances

LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar have demanded that enforced disappearances be criminalised and Pakistan ratify the international convention on enforced disappearances.

The seminar was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Institute for Peace and Secular Studies (IPSS) on the topic of “Human Rights in the Era of Enforced Disappearances” at the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) auditorium.

The speakers were I.A. Rehman, Saleema Hashmi, Dr Hina Jillani, Dr Mehdi Hassan, Deep Syeeda, Imtiaz Alam, Ahmad Rasheed and the father of missing peace activist Raza Khan. The veteran human rights activists also demanded empower the commission of inquiry and make it a judicial commission and implement the recommendations of the three-judge commission, 2010.

They stressed the authorities to recover all the missing persons, including Raza Mahmood Khan, a social activist and convener of Aaghaz-e-Dosti, an initiative to help students from India and Pakistan come closer to each other, who went missing after he left for his residence after attending a talk on extremism on December 2 last year.

Deep Sayeeda said, "People have started to disappear from Lahore and this is the moment we were afraid of." The families of the missing persons are waiting for their loved ones, she added. Enforced disappearances have become prevalent in Pakistan and one hears about new disappearances every day, she said, adding that 1,498 cases of enforced disappearances had been pending with the inquiry commission as of November 2017.

I.A. Rehman said that no one had right to snatch a person’s life, liberty and security. The report of the three-judge commission, 2010, should be published. No one should take the right of freedom from any citizen. No one talks about the trauma which a family faces when their loved one is taken, he said, adding, "We have to stand with everyone and save our youngsters from this cruelty."

Dr Hina Jillani criticised the state for not curbing the elements which violated their jurisdiction and caused such human rights crisis. She said, "If the state would not hear us from this platform, we will approach the international platforms to get our children back."

Senior analyst Imtiaz Alam said, "You (the participants) all have saved Raza Khan by coming here. If you are silent on the cruelty, then you are also a murderer. Everyone is answerable before the law. We demand peace and freedom." "Let us unite many against the few. We should write about this to the prime minister, United Nations, IB, ISI, Rangers and every single person who can play a role in it. We will fight the case of every single mission person without any discrimination," he said.

Saleema Hashmi read out a poem of Faiz Ahmad Faiz for Raza Khan and all victims of enforced disappearances. She said, "After picking up our children they say don’t panic and don’t make noise he will be home. But we ask who are you to take him? There are courts and proper procedure to interrogate a person but we are facing a situation where another state is operating within the state and no one is questioning them." Whether they are Baloch, Sindhi, Kashmiri or Punjabi, we will stand with the families of missing persons," she said.

Dr Mehdi Hassan said that this was not new; people have been disappearing for the last 70 years. "This is the critical situation of our society because we have stopped speaking about the sensitive issues," he said.

Ahmad Rasheed said, "Raza Mehmood Khan is a symbol of struggle and freedom and we will fight for him." With teary eyes, Raza Mahmood Khan’s father addressed the crowd and said that for the last one month and four days his family had not slept or eaten properly. "We don’t know where is my kid and in which condition he is. We don’t know if he has a proper meal or not. I am thankful to everyone for standing with us and we pray for his safety." At the end of seminar, hundreds of people protested for the return of the missing persons and prayed for their safety.