ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said on Monday her government was moving ahead to criminalize enforced disappearances but rights activists said they were skeptical whether the government would be able to implement a new proposed law on the subject.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines “enforced disappearance” as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, 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 place such a person outside the protection of the law.”
Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces have long been plagued by enforced disappearances. Families say men are picked up by security forces, disappear often for years, and are sometimes found dead, with no official explanation. Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies deny they carry out enforced disappearances.
This March, Prime Minister Imran Khan met a three-member delegation representing the families of missing persons who had staged a sit-in in Islamabad in February. At the meeting, Khan reiterated that a bill to criminalize enforced disappearances would be “fast tracked along with whatever other laws needed to be amended.”
PM also reiterated that our bill to criminalise Enforced Disappearances would be fast tracked along with whatever other laws needed to be amended. Meanwhile PM has asked to kept informed of progress on the whereabout of the missing family mbrs.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) March 18, 2021
Khan’s government introduced the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the National Assembly (NA) in June, proposing amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) of 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898 with new sections related to enforced disappearances.
Last week, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior unanimously adopted the proposed bill.
“There can never be any place for enforced disappearances in a democracy,” human rights minister Dr. Shireen Mazari said in a tweet on Monday, adding that the bill had been drafted in consultation with all stakeholders and no one objected to it in the National assembly or during the standing committee meeting.
Today Int Day of the Disappeared we are moving forward in our commit to criminalize Enforce Disappearances. There can never be any place for ED in a democracy. Our bill has been approved unanimously by NA SC on Interior last week. Sadly time lost bec no previous govt moved on ED.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 30, 2021
The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 states that a new section 52-B (enforced disappearance) should be inserted into PPC after section 52-A, the Express Tribune reported.
The bill stipulates that three requisite elements define enforced disappearance: one, an unlawful or illegal deprivation of liberty or a deprivation of liberty that was legal but no longer is an act allegedly carried out by agents of the state or by person or group of persons acting with the support; two, authorization or acquiescence of the state; and three, a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person.
The draft states that “whoever commits, orders, solicits or induces the commission of attempts to commit, is an accomplice to or participation in the forcible or involuntary disappearances of a person or group of persons is said to cause forcible or involuntary disappearances of that person” and falls within 512 (forcible or involuntary disappearances). Section 513 — punishment for forcible or involuntary disappearances — states “whoever causes forcible or involuntary disappearance of any person from Pakistan or within Pakistan shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to a fine.”
While rights activists in Pakistan welcome the introduction of a new law on enforced disappearances, they expressed doubts about the government’s willingness and ability to implement the legislation in its true spirit.
Naghma Iqtedar Shiekh, a human rights activist based in Karachi, said the legislation was a “welcome step.”
“There is indeed a sense of impunity within a section of the state that must be addressed on an immediate basis,” she said, but questioned if the state was actually “ready to watch the watchers?”
Referring to past cases of disappearances, she said “even with all the paperwork and investigative procedures, the bull wasn’t taken by its horns”: “The law may get passed but will it work in its true letter and spirit – that remains to be seen.”
Ammar Rashid, an Islamabad-based political and rights activist, said he supported the bill but was skeptical of the government’s intentions to implement it.
“As far as the bill is concerned, we support the passage of the bill, we have been demanding this for years,” Rashid told Arab News. “The good part is that the practice of enforced disappearance is being criminalized.”
But speaking of weaknesses in the bill, Rashid said the penalty for enforced disappearances must be increased from 10 years to 20-30 years imprisonment.
“Also, the bill doesn’t say anything about compensation,” he said, referring to families and children whose education and livelihoods had been destroyed by their family member’s disappearance: “How is the state planning to compensate them?“
Ultimately, Rashid said, the challenge would be enforcement, for which institutions would have to be adequately empowered.
But despite the concerns of rights activists, Mazari said the government was serious about taking action and had already displayed its sincerity and will.
“PM Imran Khan met Baloch families of disappeared who gave their list of missing family members — some have since returned home while others [are] being traced,” she said in a tweet, saying she couldn’t recall a PM in any previous government who had even recognized the issue let alone met with families of the missing.
PM IK met Baloch families of Disappeared who gave their list of missing family mbrs -- some have since returned home while others being traced. PM met with @AminaMJanjua. Can't recall any PMLN or PPP PM in last 2 govts even recognising ED issue let alone mtg with these families.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 30, 2021
