Missing persons probe

Foreign spy agencies behind ‘enforced disappearances’ not ISI, MI (Nab Chief)

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal said on Monday 16 April, that foreign agencies illegally apprehend people and pin the blame on Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI). Briefing a meeting of National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Human Rights, headed by Zahra Daud Fatima, Iqbal, who is also the head of a committee formed to probe missing persons, said that 70 per cent of the missing persons are found to be ‘pro-military. He said that often the kidnapped refrain from sharing details of the incident out of fear. A terrorist’s family should not be labelled a terrorist, he argued, adding that “with the state rests the responsibility of the family of the missing persons.”
Balochistan
The NAB chief said that statistics shared for the missing persons in Balochistan are contradictory to reality. “There have been several militant groups present in the province and many ‘missing persons’ have gone along with them,” he said. Former CM Balochistan Aslam Raisani and Nasrullah Baloch had been tasked to provide with the list but to no avail, the NAB chief complained.
MQM
He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) itself has no interest in their missing persons. Despite being in the government, and Ishrat-ul-Ibad’s appointment as the Sindh governor, the party lacked the sincerity, seriousness and interest of recovering their own missing workers, he added. Iqbal also said that there was no contract between Pakistan and other countries regarding extradition of Pakistani citizens, hence they were secretly handed over to them in exchange for US dollars. Yet, no one will ask them how many dollars per person, he added.
Musharraf handed over 4,000 Pakistanis to foreign countries
“Former interior minister Aftab Sherpao claimed that 4,000 people were handed over to other countries. Pervez Musharraf, in his book, admitted that people were handed over to other countries, but parliament never bothered to ask who they are. Justice Iqbal said he had asked Mr Sherpao to provide details, but he said he was not made aware of it.
Parliament did nothing about missing persons: Justice Iqbal
Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, mocked parliamentarians, saying he believed that they were the most powerful stakeholders of the state but failed to deliver. “Parliament had to find a solution but it did nothing. A report of the Judicial Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Kamal Mansoor was released five years ago, but parliament did nothing,” he regretted. ‘Justice Iqbal told the meeting that he wanted to set the record straight as it was a fact that because of unemployment a large number of people joined firari (fugitive) camps and they were getting Rs. 40,000 as month salary, but they had been declared missing persons.’
Recovery
Justice (R) Iqbal said that the commission has received 4,929 cases of ‘enforced disappearances’. The commission solved 3,219 cases from March 2011 to February 2018, he added. Presently, 1,710 cases of the missing persons are under investigation. In the past two years, the commission also received 368 cases from the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, most of which belonged to Sindh, Iqbal added. “68 persons who had gone missing in August 2016, who were either imprisoned or had returned homes were followed,” he said.
Justice (R) Iqbal further added that out of 368 missing person cases, 309 had been solved. 723 cases of the missing persons cases were registered against Pakistan in a UN working group meeting held in May 2017 in Geneva, out of which 505 have been solved. However, 218 cases are pending with the Commission, out of which 14 cases are of the Afghans who went missing in Pakistan from 1982-1986, he added. He informed the committee that the commission had disposed of 3,219 of 4,929 cases it had received as missing persons who had been recovered or their location was identified.
Foreign NGOs
Iqbal said that he was in favour of banning foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), as they work in the interests of the other countries, and are funded by them. He said that if it were up to him, he would’ve banned all foreign NGO’s by now, but ‘political reconciliation always gets in the way’. Justice Iqbal said, being NAB chairman, he would like to clarify that he never took dictation from anyone and the day someone tried to dictate to him he would quit.