Federal ministers visit Baloch missing persons families

QUETTA: The families of missing persons ended their 50-day sit-in against enforced disappearances after getting an assurance from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s committee on missing persons, reported local media on Thursday.

After getting an assurance from the committee, the families of missing persons ended their sit-in in Quetta’s Red Zone Thursday, which continued for 50 days. Following the directives of PM Sharif, the committee members, including Azam Nazir Tarar, Rana Sanaullah, Shazia Marri, Agha Hassan Baloch and Kamran Murtaza, met the protesting families.

After the conclusion of sit-in, the committee members thanked the protesting families of missing persons and other protesters. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was making serious efforts to resolve the issue of missing persons.

He, along with federal ministers Shazia Marri, Azam Nazir Tarar and Agha Hasan, had come all the way from Islamabad to Quetta to meet the mothers and sisters of missing persons to share their grief, he told a press conference here at the Chief Minister’s House.

Flanked by the three federal ministers and Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, the interior minister urged the families of missing persons to end their sit-in and have full faith in the government, which was pursuing the cases of their near and dear ones with all seriousness. Both the relatives and political parties should help the government committee, which is working on the missing persons issue, he added.

Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said today they held the seventh meeting of the Missing Persons Committee. Federal Minister Agha Hassan Baloch said the state is like a mother for citizens. The process of political dialogue should be carried forward in Balochistan so that problems could be tackled, which would ultimately result in the development of the province and the country.