The reassurance given by the chief justice at a meeting of the National Judicial Policymaking Committee in Quetta on Friday with regard to efforts to find the ‘missing’ persons should give some hope to the affected families. The apex court has been seized of the matter for five years now but the current government, like the previous one, has done little to recover the missing, a large number of whom belong to Balochistan where Gen Musharraf launched an operation to rein in Baloch nationalists.
The families of those gone missing have alleged that their dear ones were picked up by intelligence agencies on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, and that some may have been extradited to interrogation camps on foreign shores. That is why, unfortunately, the term ‘missing’ is often used as a euphemism for those presumably picked up by intelligence agencies and kept in illegal confinement without being arraigned in a court of law with charges brought against them for trial under due process. The number of such people is said to be in the hundreds. Few have been located or recovered so far.
The recently formed judicial commission to probe the phenomenon and help locate the whereabouts, or indeed fate, of those gone missing is a step in the right direction. Yet, the commission alone cannot ensure their recovery as there is hardly anything by way of official record concerning those held in illegal custody or prosecuted without due process. It is a particularly sensitive issue in Balochistan given the province’s many genuine grievances against the modus operandi of a highhanded federal and military intelligence and security apparatus. For democracy to take root it is crucial for the missing persons to be located and administered justice and for their tormentors to be held to account for violating the law.
The families of those gone missing have alleged that their dear ones were picked up by intelligence agencies on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, and that some may have been extradited to interrogation camps on foreign shores. That is why, unfortunately, the term ‘missing’ is often used as a euphemism for those presumably picked up by intelligence agencies and kept in illegal confinement without being arraigned in a court of law with charges brought against them for trial under due process. The number of such people is said to be in the hundreds. Few have been located or recovered so far.
The recently formed judicial commission to probe the phenomenon and help locate the whereabouts, or indeed fate, of those gone missing is a step in the right direction. Yet, the commission alone cannot ensure their recovery as there is hardly anything by way of official record concerning those held in illegal custody or prosecuted without due process. It is a particularly sensitive issue in Balochistan given the province’s many genuine grievances against the modus operandi of a highhanded federal and military intelligence and security apparatus. For democracy to take root it is crucial for the missing persons to be located and administered justice and for their tormentors to be held to account for violating the law.
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