LAHORE: On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed concerns over the woeful track record of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, including the credibility of its chairperson and its continued inability or unwillingness to hold the perpetrators of this heinous practice accountable.
The HRCP noted with alarm that in the last 10 years, the geographical spread of disappearances has grown, now extending across all provinces and territories, while the profile of victims has expanded to include not only political activists but also journalists and human rights defenders.
While the recently-proposed bill against enforced disappearances is a good law on paper and at least acknowledges the severity of the situation, the HRCP is concerned that the bill lacks a concrete and practicable mechanism for identifying and holding perpetrators responsible and does not provide for reparations to victims and their families.
In addition, until and unless all state apparatus can be held collectively responsible under the law rather than assigning responsibility to individuals alone the mere existence of the law itself will not curb enforced disappearances. The HRCP called on the judiciary to fulfil its responsibility to enforce citizens’ fundamental rights and show greater resolve in demanding accountability for enforced disappearances.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the HRCP on Monday, Chairperson Hina Jilani said she is especially concerned that the fallout of the crisis in Afghanistan could lead to an uptick in disappearances among progressive voices.
In conjunction with other civil society organisations, the HRCP held demonstrations against enforced disappearances in Islamabad, Karachi, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Multan. Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Secretary General Farhatullah Babar, meanwhile, in a statement said that enforced disappearance was a crime against humanity and Pakistan must end the impunity of this heinous crime before it was leveraged by the international community to turn screws against the country,.
“Like FATF and sanctuaries for some militants, the issue will become yet another albatross around the neck if immediate remedial measures are not taken,” he warned in a statement on Monday on the eve of the International Day on Enforced Disappearance.
Babar said the crime of enforced disappearances is a far too serious as it is a violation of all other rights including right to justice, to life, to liberty, against torture besides causing unbearable psychological, social and financial agony to the families of victims. He said all initiatives taken by the courts, the parliament, political parties, the media and the civil society organisations have come to naught, which only shows that those involved in it are more powerful than all democratic and constitutional institutions.
“The impunity of crime, the inability to hold to account a single perpetrator, is frightening,” he said. He said that the recently-introduced Bill on Enforced Disappearances was more of a political statement than a genuine move forward.
“The Section 365 of the PPC already criminalises unlawful abductions and deprivation of liberty and there was nothing new in the bill,” he said. Babar called for a new and comprehensive legal architecture to address the issue. “The new laws must provide for mechanisms to register complaints, carry out investigations, hold perpetrators to account, rehabilitating victim’ families, making the opaque internment centres transparent,” he said.
