Families of missing people in Balochistan want government to intervene in concrete way

Beleaguered families from Balochistan, whose members have gone missing in recent years as a result of actions by Pakistani security agencies, are demanding tangible government action on the issue rather than mere lip service from successive Prime Ministers.

Enforced disappearances, which began several years ago in Balochistan and former Fata under the guise of fighting terrorists and insurgents, have since spread to major urban centers such as Islamabad, KP, and Sindh, according to Dawn.

According to Dawn, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that he would raise the issue of Balochistan's missing persons with "powerful quarters," vowing to raise his voice on the issue.

However, many people, including Sammi Deen Baloch, the daughter of Dr. Deen Muhammad, who has been missing since mid-2009, are skeptical of the Prime Minister's assurance, according to the report.

“Ever since the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) came to power in 2008, all Prime Ministers have talked about the missing persons,” Baloch said, adding, “All of them have vowed to address the issue. But there has been no progress to this day.”

“Like Shehbaz Sharif, other Prime Ministers, including Imran Khan, assured us that the issue of Baloch missing persons is their top priority, but we have yet to see the results,” Baloch further said.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was established in March 2011 in response to persistent campaigning by family members of these missing people and human rights groups, but it only managed to trace a handful of those missing, according to the report.

158 people have been reported as "missing" to the commission since 2022.

According to some rights activists, the commission still has over 2,000 unresolved cases. In many cases, rights groups have blamed security agencies for detaining people on suspicion of involvement in militant activities, which the authorities have repeatedly denied.

Earlier this month, Chief Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) equated enforced disappearances with treason. The remark was made during the IHC hearing on the case of missing journalist Mudassar Naaru. Naru, a Lahore-based journalist, went missing in August 2018.

“Can anyone be disappeared without their [federal and provincial governments’] will? No,” the judge declared. “People going missing are the incompetence of the State. The Executive is responsible if the state agencies are not in control. Why don’t we declare the executive responsible for it?”

Pakistani authorities use enforced disappearances to terrorize people who question the country's all-powerful army establishment or seek individual or social rights. Enforced disappearances have been prevalent in the country's Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces, which are home to active separatist movements.

According to a recent US report, over 8,000 people are missing in the country during 2021, with 1,200 missing in Sindh province in the last six months. (ANI)