KARACHI: Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari revealed on Monday that a bill pertaining to enforced disappearances, which was recently passed by the National Assembly (NA), had gone “missing”.

Addressing a session of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, she said: “We had prepared the bill regarding missing persons and it was passed by the [relevant] standing committee and the National Assembly. But it went missing after it was sent to the Senate.”

The minister said there were reports, however, that the bill was now at the Senate Secretariat, according a Dawn.com report.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2021, was passed by the NA on November 8, 2021, and is aimed at making amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure.

It was introduced in the National Assembly by the interior minister in June 2021. While initially there was no provision related to the filing of a false complaint or false information about subjecting a person to enforced disappearance, subsequently a provision was added to the bill to declare it a penal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment with a fine up to Rs500,000.

Says state will pursue Jokhio murder case if kin agree to compromise

The proposed law provides for the insertion of a new section 52B in the PPC for defining an “enforced disappearance”.

It states: “The term enforced disappearance relates to illegal and without lawful authority arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by an agent of the State or by person or group of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of the law.”

Enactment of a law for criminalising “enforced disappearance” in Pakistan is a long-standing demand of human rights bodies, especially Amnesty International and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Enforced disappearances, which began several years ago in the backwaters of Balochistan and erstwhile Fata on the pretext of fighting terrorists and insurgents, have extended to major urban centres, including Islamabad, over the years.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, established in March 2011, has managed to trace many of those missing, but activists claim it has failed in the second part of its mandate, that is, to identify and prosecute those perpetrating these abductions.

Some rights activists estimate there still remain over 2,000 unresolved cases with the commission.

Dr Mazari further said her ministry had sought the details from provinces of prisoners who remained in jail because they did not have the means to pay fines imposed on them.

She said her ministry would pay fines on their behalf.

The minister also said that if the family of Nazim Jokhio — who was tortured to death while allegedly in detention at PPP MPA Jam Awais’ farmhouse on the outskirts of Karachi’s Malir area — agreed to a “compromise with the suspects, the state would pursue the case in court”.

Mr Nazim was found dead at Mr Awais’ farmhouse on November 3 last year.

His relatives have accused the PPP MPA, the lawmaker’s brother PPP MNA Jam Abdul Karim and his henchmen of torturing Mr Nazim to death for resisting houbara bustard hunting by the lawmakers’ Arab guests and filming them while hunting in the victim’s village, Achar Salaar village in Thatta.

The committee had summoned the Sindh inspector general (IG) of police to brief lawmakers on the case on Monday, but he did not attend the session.

Other police officials attending the session told the committee that MPA Awais had been arrested in the case and Mr Nazim’s brother had named three officials whom he wanted to carry out the investigation.

They said that six suspects had been arrested and the “real murderers” would be arrested soon.

The police officials, too, said if the victim’s relative agreed to a compromise, “we will be in the court”.

Following their briefing, the standing committee again summoned the Sindh IGP at its next session.

Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad adds: The standing committee also discussed target killing of social worker and media person Mohammad Zada in Malakand. The committee also took targeted killing of social activist Sheeba Gul and her father in Malakand allegedly by land grabbers, murder of an innocent woman, Rabia, in Swabi, kidnapping of two university students in Balochistan and targeted killing of Sikh Hakeem Sardar Satnam Singh.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmed told the meeting that Mohammad Zada had a reputation for speaking out against social evils and drug mafia in Malakand division.

The KP DIG said the murder cases in Malakand did not fall under his jurisdiction and the commissioner had the sole authority in Malakand. The committee decided to call the deputy commissioner of Malakand in the next meeting.

The matter related to the kidnapping of two students from Balochistan University also came under discussion in the committee meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022