Missing persons cases to be tried in civil courts

ISLAMABAD: The government took a landmark decision on Tuesday under which those involved in kidnapping citizens will be tried under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The decision was made by Prime Minister Imran Khan in a meeting on human rights at the PM Office (PMO). A press release issued by the PMO said the government had decided to amend the PPC in order to criminalise any attempt by an individual or organisation to make someone disappear by force. “After the decision, those involved in abducting citizens will be tried in civil courts,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told media after the meeting. The issue of missing persons and enforced disappearance had been a challenging task for previous governments as the list of missing persons continued to swell. People living in conflict-ridden tribal areas, Balochistan and Karachi have been complaining about enforced disappearances. The Pakistan Peoples Party has taken a firm stand on the issue and raised it time and again. It is believed that missing persons have been picked by intelligence agencies and, thus, they have not been allowed to defend themselves in a court of law. On July 12 last year the Islamabad High Court (IHC) defined the concept of enforced disappearance and declared that individuals involved in abducting and detaining citizens at unknown locations might be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The 47-page judgement, authored by Justice Athar Minallah (now chief justice of the IHC) in the case of a missing IT expert who was kidnapped from his home in F-10, Islamabad, introduced strict consequences for officials involved in enforced disappearances. The IHC also ruled that certain government functionaries were responsible for the criminal justice system’s failure to recover Mr Mehmood and fined them. It expressed displeasure with intelligence agencies – the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau – and directed the federal government to bear monthly expenses of the missing individual’s family. According to the Missing Persons Commission, it has disposed of 3,492 out of 5,608 cases up to Nov 30. The commission received 5,507 cases up to Oct 31 and 111 more up to November last year.