Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan

The issue of enforced disappearances or what is commonly known as a missing persons issue, is one of the major human rights concerns in Pakistan and we are yet to see a reasonable solution. While more than 7000 complaints of enforced disappearances have been reported in Pakistan since 2011, the real number might be much higher.

In September 2020, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntarily Disappearances called on Pakistan to end enforced disappearances of human rights defenders. The frequent protests with women and children with pictures of their loved ones in their hands demanding the release of their dear and near ones are damaging the image of the country, which now sits on the UN Human Rights Council.

The victims’ association and human rights activists say that authorities should locate the whereabouts of thousands of missing persons and made them public; and if they are wanted in any case, they should be tried in a court of law.

The Pakistani Security Forces conduct the most enforced disappearances, who justify their actions as an essential national security tool. However, the Pakistan Security Forces mostly deny involvement in these disappearances publicly and enjoy complete impunity. They refuse to provide information on the whereabouts, and sometimes even deny they abducted a person (Amnesty International, 2021). The culture of this impunity is further expanded due to the censorship of the Pakistani Media and the threats that comes with speaking about the enforced disappearances. This means lawyers, politicians, activists, and journalists become fearful of being abducted themselves (The Guardian, 2020).

With these enforced disappearances, families are broken up and sometimes outcasted from society, along with feelings of uncertainty and intense grief. Furthermore, families suffer economic, social, and cultural challenges. The health and education of the children in such grieving families have also been impacted (The International News, 2021). Economic challenges also arise, whereby a portion of household income disappears, and financial burdens grow. With this, also comes social challenges such as stigma, which may lead to the aforementioned social out casting. Women in particular cannot remarry or break their engagement without proving the death of their spouse, which leaves them neither a wife nor a widow (The Guardian, 2020).

The UN mission visiting Pakistan back in 2012 urged the government to investigate allegations that security forces had abducted hundreds of people and take steps to hold powerful intelligence agencies to account. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have long resisted oversight by civilian governments in a country that has experienced long periods of military rule.

“Even though Pakistan may recognize that some disappearances have occurred, not a single perpetrator has been convicted,” said Olivier de Frouville, who chairs a Geneva-based U.N. panel that monitors allegations of state-sponsored disappearances around the world. “They should really fight against impunity.”

The French law professor said the Pakistan government should take steps to ensure it could exercise transparent oversight over the intelligence agencies and that military personnel suspected of abuses are tried in civilian courts.

“The state has to take some measures – and show that these measures are being taken – to supervise the work of these (intelligence) agencies. It has to be visible,” he told reporters. These comments discomforted Pakistan army’s top brass to such an extent that they refused to meet the visiting UN Human Rights group besides various requests; as Pakistan army has long sought to cultivate a climate where support for the military is equated with patriotism and public criticism of intelligence agencies is a taboo.

Reported Pakistani Missing Persons Database
Source: COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES (COIOED.PK)