Centre likely to legislate to criminalise enforced disappearances, AGP tells SHC

The federal government has been taking the cases of missing persons very seriously and it is likely that the government will pass legislation to criminalise enforced disappearances. The information to this effect was provided by the attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) to the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

During the hearing of petitions against enforced disappearances of citizens before a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, AGP Khalid Javed apologised for the federal interior secretary’s failure to comply with the court orders with regard to presence of the missing persons in the internment centres of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Interior Secretary Yousuf Nasim Khokhar, whose non-bailabale warrants had been issued by the high court on the last hearing, appeared before the bench and apologised for not complying with the orders.

He submitted that he had full respect for the judiciary and he was very much active in finding out whether any of the missing persons from Karachi were held in the internment centres of KP.

He said he was carrying out such exercise and would complete the same within the shortest possible time. He also submitted a list which he had received from the KP government with three names of persons belonging to Sindh who were currently in internment centres of KP.

The high court directed the office to go through the names of Farhad Ali, Abdul Rauf and Rehmat Ali and place a copy of the order in petitions with regard to their disappearances so that their petitions could be disposed of as infructuous.

The SHC also directed the interior secretary to obtain a list of missing persons pending in the court and file a report on whether such persons were incarcerated in the internment centres of KPK. The bench also vacated the show-cause notice issued to the secretary after finding his reply as satisfactory and recalled non-bailable warrant issued against him.

The human rights and humanitarian affairs director also filed a report which he had provided to the United Nations working group on enforced disappearances. The foreign affairs official submitted that the number of cases shared by the UN working group was found to be inaccurate or incomplete regarding alleged cases of enforced disappearances. He stated that it had been observed that Pakistan’s distractors had been sharing factually inaccurate information to the working group to malign the country and promote a particular narrative.

The high court directed the ministry of foreign affairs that such reports should be as accurate as possible so that any unwarranted criticism was not made against the country.

The ministry of human rights official submitted that the process of appointment of the chairperson of the human rights commission was in an advance stage. Regarding legislation on enforced disappearances, the official submitted that the ministry of human rights had initially prepared a draft bill on forced disappearances in 2019 with consultations of all the stakeholders.

He submitted that the cabinet committee for the disposal of legislative cases approved the proposed bill titled Forced or Involuntarily Disappearances (criminal law amendment) Act 2021 with the stipulation that certain provisions of the bill such as preamble and statement of objects and reasons be redrafted in consultation with members of the committee and the law and justice division. The high court directed the interior secretary to submit a compliance report on the court directives on August 24.

It is pertinent to mention that the SHC had taken exception to non-filing of reports about the presence of missing persons in internment centres of KP by the interior secretary and his non-appearance before the court, and issued non-bailabale warrants against him through the IG Police Islamabad.