Total 314 missing persons traced by commission; says minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister of state for interior Imtiaz Safdar Warraich on Friday informed the Senate that the PPP-led coalition government was pursuing the cases of missing persons vigorously and a total of 314 missing persons had been traced till date due to these efforts.

Responding to the supplementary questions raised by the members during the question hour, the minister said that an enquiry commission had been formed on enforced disappearances and the former senior-most judge of the supreme court Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal was presiding over the commission which had been a period of three years while the status of the commission was also raised. He said the commission has been able to trace 181 missing persons.

He said that initially, the commission was headed by Justice Fazalur Rehman, the former judge of Balochistan high court on March 1, 2011, but later on he was appointed as member, Election Commission of Pakistan.

He said that the report of the commission under Justice Fazalur Rehman had also been presented in the apex court while the same had also been submitted with the prime minister. He said under Justice Fazal, 134 persons were recovered while the second commission had helped trace 181 more missing people. He said the report of the previous commission had been published by the ministry of interior.

The minister said that the number of cases transferred to the recently formed commission were 138 while 538 new cases had been received by the commission. He said till date, 209 cases had been disposed while 467 cases were remaining. He said that FIRs had also been registered according to the complaints but the newly formed commission was yet to prepare its report.

Replying a question about the missing prisoners who had been set free from jails, the minister said that the court decisions were binding on all state institutions and the agencies had no role in such matters.

The minister said that there were no Pakistani prisoner jailed without any charge in Saudi Arabia after acquittal by Saudi Arabian courts. He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had signed an extradition treaty. (APP)