During his maiden visit to Quetta on Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to raise voice on the issue of missing persons and promised to move Balochistan towards progress during his government’s tenure.
He rightly pointed out that if missing persons issue is not resolved in line with the law, then sense of deprivation will remain in Balochistan.
Certainly enforced disappearances take a terrible toll on families and there are instances where family members even committed suicides out of depression after finding the loved one missing.
This is a serious human rights issue that government in cooperation with security agencies should address at the earliest.
This issue has plagued Pakistan — especially Balochistan province — since Gen Pervez Musharraf decided to join the US war on terrorism post 9/11.
People were abducted or illegally detained and nobody knows what happened to them. According to a 2019 report issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, about forty seven thousand Baloch and around thirty five thousand Pashtuns were missing.
The figures itself highlights enormity of the issue. Our government officials highly speak against illegal detention of Kashmiri people by the Indian forces yet question arises why are we doing the same to our own people.
If those abducted people have any link with terrorists or are involved in terrorist activities then they should be tried in the courts and punished as per law of the land.
Those who have committed no crime must be released at once. Abducting the people illegally is not only making the whole matter murky but also providing space to our enemies to exploit the situation.
We have before us the example of those killed in the US drone strikes in tribal areas as their family members then took up arms to take a revenge for their loved ones.
The latest statement by PM Shehbaz Sharif is very reassuring and one hopes it will also translate into action.
Previously, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was established to address the issue but unfortunately it failed to achieve much in the last ten years or so.
Similarly, in 2019, Ministry of Human Rights drafted a bill to criminalise enforced disappearances, giving us hope that this unlawful practice may soon come to an end.
The draft, however, has since disappeared in a bureaucratic web and is unlikely to be accepted as law anytime soon.
As the PM’s statement would have given a ray of hope to the families of missing persons, he will now have to take this matter on priority basis.
Putting an end to enforced disappearances is more important than development projects in Balochistan.
Balochistan is a strategically and resource rich province and by addressing its problems, the country can tread the path of development on fast track basis.
