Human rights committee seeks briefing on missing persons

Abdullah Malik

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly standing committee on human rights on Thursday lamented on Ministry of Human rights having no proper data of the provinces on those missing or forcefully disappeared.

The committee was chaired by Bilawal Bhutoo where ministry of human rights briefed the committee on missing persons in Baluchistan.

The HR ministry told the committee that they have only data of missing persons of Baluchistan while three other provinces didn’t not share their data with ministry. The ministry official while sharing the data of Baluchistan added that a total of 513 persons missing from different areas of the province in which 211 persons have been traced while 102 cases disposed off as they were not in missing person category.

Member National Assembly Agha Hassan Baluch added that these statistics are not of Baluchistan but the ministry limited the whole province with some streets of Quetta city. He added that Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal of Baluchistan National Party (BNP) after forming alliance with current government of Imran Khan handed over a list of 5000 people to the speaker of the assembly but only some people released after that list and other are still missing. The incumbent member added that the province is passing through a tough time not only due to missing persons but as well the poverty the resident is facing of the province but no one is ready to solve the issue of the poverty hits province.

Mohsin Dawar added that Chairman NAB is heading the missing person’s commission and he is not that much interested to sought out the issues and we argued on parliamentary forums with him. He added he briefed the committee on the issue and when we argued that what action taken against the accused he responded that this is out of his domain. Dawar noted that those people are part of commission who are responsible of this menace.

Bilawal the chairman of the committee directed all IGs of police, Secretaries of home department of all provinces to attend the coming meeting of the committee and briefed us on the issue.  He while arguing with ministry of human rights officials added that this is important issue of the country but Human rights minister and her secretary is absent from the meeting which is strange. He further added that why no action was taken by the ministry against those who forcefully abducted the citizens of the country.