In Pakistan, draft law to criminalize ‘enforced disappearances’ disappears into web of bureaucracy 

In this file photo, Pakistani human rights activists carry placards during a protest for missing persons to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances in Lahore on August 30, 2016. (File/ AFP)
Short Url
Updated 11 September 2020
Follow

In Pakistan, draft law to criminalize ‘enforced disappearances’ disappears into web of bureaucracy 

  • Last week’s mysterious disappearance of SECP official Sajid Gondal has highlighted continuing cases of enforced disappearances and need for new legislation to curb them
  • Ministry of human rights says sent bill on enforced disappearances to law ministry in Jan 2019, draft then forwarded to interior ministry last month for additional vetting

ISLAMABAD: A draft bill to criminalize enforced disappearances, which has been with the law ministry for ‘vetting’ for over a year and a half, is now being reviewed by the interior ministry with no deadline on when it will be finalized, several officials have said, as last week’s mysterious disappearance of a government official has once more put the spotlight on cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan.
Sajid Gondal, a joint director at the SECP, went missing on Thursday night, his family said. On Wednesday he tweeted that he was back home.

In an interview with Arab News on Tuesday, Gondal’s wife called his disappearance an “abduction” and said the family had no information about his whereabouts and had been told by police it had no leads.
“If there is any allegation or charge on him, he must be produced before the court,” Sajeela Sajid said.
Media first reported that unknown abductors had freed Gondal on the outskirts of Islamabad. On Wednesday, however, local TV channels quoted Gondal as saying he had spent the days in which he was missing in Pakistan’s picturesque northern areas, on a trip with friends.
Many journalists and rights defenders raised questions over the explanation, asking why Gondal disappeared without a word while driving home from work and left his car unattended on a roadside, the key still in the ignition. Gondal made no attempt to contact his family or friends in the days he was gone.
The Islamabad High Court has also raised questions about Gondal’s disappearance this week, saying it would summon the prime minister to provide an explanation if the government failed to safeguard citizens’ fundamental rights.
“Abduction of citizens and failure on part of law enforcing agencies to trace their whereabouts and prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this most heinous crime appears to have become a norm,” the court said. “There is no accountability. The protectors of fundamental rights have become silent spectators to this most abhorrent violation of fundamental rights.”
Investigation officer Malik Naeem appeared before the court and said he was investigating 50 cases of missing persons in Islamabad alone.
A federal Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances set up by the government in 2011 listed 6,506 such cases nationwide by the end of 2019. And despite the pledges of successive Pakistani governments to criminalize the practice, there has been slow movement on legislation and people continue to be forcibly disappeared.
“Ministry of Human Rights bill aimed to criminalize enforced disappearance as a separate, autonomous offense through amendments in PPC [Pakistan Penal Code] and CrPC [Code of Criminal Procedure],” Rabiya Javeri Agha, secretary at the human rights ministry, told Arab News.
When asked about the status of the bill, she said it was with the ministry of law for “vetting.” The ministry of law confirmed it had received the bill in January 2019.
The bill sat at the law ministry until last month, when around four weeks ago it was passed on to the interior ministry for another review, said Lalarukh Waheed, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, adding that the bill was now at the interior secretary’s office for review.
Despite repeated calls and text messages, officials at the law and interior ministries did not disclose details of current discussions around the bill or why there was a delay in processing it.
Human rights minister Shireen Mazari also declined repeated requests for an interview for this piece.
“SPECIFIC LAW IS REQUIRED”
Ali Nawaz Chowhan, chairman of the government’s National Commission for Human Rights, said delays in introducing a new law to curb continuing enforced disappearances had put the credibility of the government at stake.
“A specific law is required to declare the enforced disappearances illegal and collect the required evidence to produce and retrieve a missing person,” he told Arab News. “The enforced disappearances have tarnished our international image … and this will continue till we put an end to the menace.”
Families of disappeared persons currently have two legal remedies, barrister Omer Malik said: They can file a petition of habeas corpus with a session or high court, which would require a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, or register an abduction case with the police.
“These laws are effective to recover a missing or abducted person from the custody of civilians,” Malik said. “In the case of state agencies, they simply deny having custody of a person, and then police or judiciary have no specific powers to locate a person in their custody and get them retrieved.”
Pakistan’s secret services are often blamed for enforced disappearances, though they vociferously deny the allegations.
Last year, the military said it had set up a special cell on missing persons at its headquarters in Rawalpindi. The army also issued a statement sympathizing with families of missing people, while saying that some may have joined militant groups and “not every person missing is attributable to the state.”
Meanwhile, journalists and rights defenders remain under threat.
In July, journalist Matiullah Jan, a well-known critic of the Pakistani security establishment, government and judiciary, was abducted by plainclothes abductors and gunmen in state security uniforms from outside the school where his wife is employed. He was returned in 24 hours.
In November last year, human rights defender and former Amnesty International consultant Idris Khattak, who has spent a lifetime working on enforced disappearances, was taken in broad daylight from his car in northern Pakistan.
Over half a year after he was last heard from, military intelligence finally admitted on the record that Khattak was in custody and would be charged under the 1923 Official Secrets Act, which carries a punishment of 14 years in prison, or death. Authorities have not provided specific details of the activities for which he has been charged.
In January this year, the defense ministry accepted before the Lahore High Court that lawyer Inamur Rahim was in custody and being tried under the Official Secrets Act. Rahim has filed numerous petitions against the practice of missing persons and was abducted from his home in December 2019.
In December 2010, in a landmark court session, the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence agencies confessed before the Supreme Court that 11 missing inmates of the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi were in their custody and being tried under the Army Act. The 11 men were also produced before the court by military officials.
FAMILIES AWAIT ANSWERS
In the provincial capital of Balochistan, a southwestern province racked by insurgency, a daily sit-in against enforced disappearances began on June 28, 2009 and continues to date.
Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun community, 30 million strong, has been leading peaceful protests across the country for over two years, seeking details on hundreds of their young men who they say have “disappeared”.
Talia Khattak, the 20-year-old daughter of Idris Khattak, who is also Pashtun, said she was “emotionally broken” worrying about the whereabouts and health of her father, who is a diabetes patient and requires daily medication.
Khattak has a long career working on the documentation of human rights abuses and enforced disappearances in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Though authorities have finally admitted Khattak is in their custody, his daughter said the family had still not been allowed to see him.
“I am living a life of hopelessness,” she said. “I don’t know if my father is alive and will he ever return home.”
Khattak’s lawyer said the Peshawar High Court was expected to take up the case in the second week of September.
“Under the law, any security agency is bound to produce an accused before the court within 24 hours,” Latif Afridi told Arab News. “There is no lacunae in the laws [regarding enforced disappearances], but the real challenge is their implementation.”
Outside the court this week, the mother of SECP official Gondal sat on a footpath and said she only had God to turn to.
“How will they face God?” she said, referring to her son’s abductors and crying in a video that has gone viral on social media. “Don’t they know one day they will be facing their Lord? The highest court is God’s court. I seek justice from my Lord. God ask them, God should punish them.”


Pakistan PM Sharif heads to Azerbaijan for ECO summit focused on climate, trade

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan PM Sharif heads to Azerbaijan for ECO summit focused on climate, trade

  • Regional leaders gather in Baku to discuss sustainable development, connectivity
  • PM Sharif expected to reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to ECO Vision 2025

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be in Azerbaijan from today, Thursday, to attend the two-day 17th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Baku, where regional leaders will meet to discuss sustainable growth, climate resilience and increased intra-regional trade.

The theme of this year’s summit is “New ECO Vision for a Sustainable and Climate Resilient Future.” The ECO is a 10-member regional bloc comprising countries from Central and South Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.

According to a report published in state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, Sharif will lead the Pakistani delegation and “share Pakistan’s perspective on key regional and global challenges.”

The report said he will also “reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to the ECO Vision 2025 and advocate for enhanced intra-regional trade, transport connectivity, energy cooperation, and sustainable development.”

On the sidelines of the summit, Sharif is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with other ECO leaders to discuss matters of mutual interest.

This marks Sharif’s second visit to Azerbaijan this year. He last traveled to Baku in May 2025, where he met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and discussed deepening bilateral cooperation in energy and trade.

The ECO was established in 1985 by Iran, Turkiye, and Pakistan, and was expanded later to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The organization aims to promote economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among member states.


Hindu pilgrimage begins at Kashmir site where April attack triggered brief war with Pakistan

Updated 7 min 50 sec ago
Follow

Hindu pilgrimage begins at Kashmir site where April attack triggered brief war with Pakistan

  • Last year, half a million devotees took part in the Amarnath pilgrimage to a cave above the town of Pahalgam
  • Pahalgam is site where April 22 attack killed 26 tourists, unleashing brief but intense war with neighboring Pakistan

PAHALGAM, India: Hindus began a vast month-long pilgrimage in contested Indian Kashmir on Thursday, with many of the faithful starting from near the site where a deadly April attack triggered conflict with Pakistan.

Last year, half a million devotees took part in the Amarnath pilgrimage to a sacred ice pillar located in a cave in the forested Himalayan hills above the town of Pahalgam.

Pahalgam is the site where gunmen on April 22 killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists.

New Delhi said the gunmen were backed by Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected — triggering a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures that escalated into a four-day conflict.

It was the worst standoff by the nuclear-armed nations since 1999, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, before a May 10 ceasefire.

But pilgrim Muneshwar Das Shashtri, who traveled from Uttar Pradesh state, told AFP “there is no fear of any kind.”

“Our army is standing guard everywhere. No one can raise a finger toward us,” he said.

India has ramped up security for the event, deploying 45,000 troops with high-tech surveillance tools overseeing the grueling trek to reach the high-altitude cave, dedicated to the Hindu deity of destruction Shiva.

“We have multi-layered and in-depth security arrangements so that we can make the pilgrimage safe and smooth for the devotees,” said VK Birdi, police chief for the Muslim-majority territory.

At Pahalgam, soldiers have turned a tented base camp into a fortress encircled by razor wire.

Troops in newly deployed armored cars, or from gun positions behind sandbags, keep a close watch — efforts boosted by facial recognition cameras.

“High-quality surveillance cameras have been installed at all major points along the route,” said Manoj Sinha, the Indian-appointed top administrator for Jammu and Kashmir.

All pilgrims must be registered and travel in guarded vehicle convoys, until they start out to walk.

Camouflaged bunkers have been erected in the forests along the route, where dozens of makeshift kitchens provide free food.

Electronic radio cards pinpoint their location.

Pilgrims can take several days to reach the cave, perched at 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) high, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) uphill from the last easily motorable track.

“Whatever the attack that was carried out here, I am not afraid. I have come to get a glimpse of baba (the ice formation)” said Ujwal Yadav, 29, from India’s Uttar Pradesh state, undertaking his first pilgrimage to the shrine.

“Such are the security arrangements here that no one can be hurt.”

Sinha has said that “public confidence is returning,” but admits that pilgrim registration had dipped by 10 percent this year.

Once a modest, little-known ritual, attended by only a few thousand mainly local devotees, the pilgrimage has grown since an armed insurgency erupted in 1989.

India’s government has since heavily promoted the annual event, which runs until August 9.

Rebels fighting against India’s control of Kashmir have said the pilgrimage is not a target, but have warned they would act if it was used to assert Hindu dominance.

In 2017, suspected rebels attacked a pilgrim bus, killing 11 people.

The gunmen who carried out the April 22 killings remain at large, despite the manhunt by security forces in Kashmir where India has half a million soldiers permanently deployed.

On June 22, India’s National Investigation Agency said two men had been arrested from the Pahalgam area who they said had “provided food, shelter and logistical support” to the gunmen.

Indian police have issued wanted notices for three of the gunmen, two of whom they said were Pakistani citizens. Pakistani has rejected the claim.


Pakistan PM orders doubling of digital payment targets to boost cashless economy

Updated 10 min 29 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan PM orders doubling of digital payment targets to boost cashless economy

  • Move aims to deepen transparency, widen tax net as mobile app users set to rise from 95-120 million
  • Government targets expansion of QR code usage, e-payments and Internet access across the country

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the doubling of all key digital economy targets, including mobile-based payments, QR code adoption, and overall transaction volumes, as part of Pakistan’s push to accelerate its transition to a cashless economy, his office said on Thursday.

The directive comes as authorities aim to increase mobile payment users from 95 million to 120 million, and QR code-enabled merchants from 0.9 million to 2 million. The total value of digital transactions is expected to rise from Rs7.5 billion ($26.9 million) to Rs12 billion ($43 million), according to figures shared in a meeting chaired by Sharif on Thursday. A statement released after the discussions did not provide a timeline for meeting these targets.

Sharif said the targets were not ambitious enough and must be doubled across the board to match the scale of Pakistan’s digital transformation agenda.

“A digital transaction system is essential for bringing transparency to the economy,” Sharif said. “It is an urgent need of the hour to ease payments between citizens and businesses and raise awareness about the use of digital systems.”

Pakistan, a country of over 240 million people, has a vast informal economy and low tax compliance. The government has long identified digitization as a key tool to improve governance, reduce corruption, and expand the country’s narrow tax base.

Three committees — the Digital Payments Innovation and Adoption Committee, the Digital Public Infrastructure Committee, and the Government Payments Committee — have already been formed to oversee the transition. 

At Thursday’s meeting, Sharif directed the bodies to present “workable proposals in collaboration with all stakeholders,” the statement said.

The State Bank of Pakistan is developing strategies to simplify digital transactions for traders, including special incentive packages for small businesses. The government also plans to expand the use of digital mobile apps and improve access to digital public infrastructure.

Sharif was also briefed on new services set to launch soon, including e-stamping, as well as public Wi-Fi expansion across hospitals, schools, parks, government offices and metro lines in Islamabad.

He instructed officials to roll out these facilities across all federal territories, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.


Pakistan issues fresh monsoon flood alert as deaths rises to 64 in over a week

Updated 03 July 2025
Follow

Pakistan issues fresh monsoon flood alert as deaths rises to 64 in over a week

  • New rainfall system threatens Pothohar, central and southern Punjab, KP provinces 
  • NDMA warns of glacial floods, landslides as rivers expected to swell across country

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster and weather authorities issued fresh flood warnings on Thursday as new monsoon rains are expected in parts of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, with the national death toll from rain-related incidents rising to 64 in just over a week.

A weather system is currently active over Chakwal, Talagang, and Mianwali districts and is expected to bring rain, wind and thunderstorms to areas including Khushab, Sargodha, Bhakkar, Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat in the next two to four hours, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in an advisory on Thursday morning.

“Public is advised to take precautionary measures during the weather activity accordingly,” the PMD said in a statement issued from its Islamabad office.

Separately, the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) also warned of a fresh spell of monsoon rains across the province from July 5 to 10, with heavy downpours expected to trigger flash flooding, especially in low-lying and river-adjacent districts.

“The second monsoon spell will begin from July 5 across Punjab,” the PDMA said in an alert, listing expected rains in Rawalpindi, Murree, Attock, Chakwal, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, and D.G. Khan among other districts. 

“All relevant departments have been issued preemptive alerts on the instructions of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz,” it added.

The warning comes as Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that at least 64 people, including 45 children and 31 women, had been killed and over 113 injured in rain-related incidents since June 26.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province accounted for 22 deaths, followed by Punjab with 21, Sindh with 15, and Balochistan with five, the NDMA said.

The authority has issued impact-based alerts highlighting the risk of urban flooding, flash floods, landslides and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) across northern regions like Gilgit-Baltistan and KP as well as hill torrents in DG Khan and Rajanpur.

“The National Emergencies Operation Center has issued multiple alerts in light of forecasted severe weather conditions expected from 2nd to 8th July 2025,” the NDMA said.

In the country’s mountainous north, especially in Gilgit-Baltistan, high temperatures have accelerated glacier melt, compounding the risk of sudden floods and landslides in narrow valleys and near vulnerable glacial lakes, the authority added.

“Tourists are advised against visiting high-altitude and glacial regions during this period,” the NDMA warned, instructing municipal and district administrations to clear stormwater drains, activate emergency response teams and prepare for possible evacuations.

Pakistan, home to over 240 million people, is consistently ranked among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. In 2022, record-breaking monsoon rains and glacier melt caused catastrophic floods that affected 33 million people and killed more than 1,700.

In its alert on Thursday, the PDMA specifically warned of urban flooding in northern and central Punjab, while the PMD warned of localized thunderstorms and strong winds hitting key agricultural and urban districts over the next 48 hours.

The authorities have urged the public to stay indoors during thunderstorms, avoid unnecessary travel and keep children away from electricity poles and waterlogged areas.

For emergencies, the PDMA advised citizens to contact its helpline 1129.


Pakistani’s Bioniks fits first prosthetic limb on Gaza child survivor Sidra

Updated 03 July 2025
Follow

Pakistani’s Bioniks fits first prosthetic limb on Gaza child survivor Sidra

  • Pakistani startup provides arm to young girl through Jordan partnership as part of Gaza amputee support mission
  • Founded in Karachi, Bioniks specializes in low-cost, customizable prosthetics using 3D printing and smart sensors

KARACHI: Pakistani health-tech Bioniks has successfully fitted its first prosthetic limb in Gaza for a young girl injured in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the firm said on social media on Thursday, marking the start of its broader effort to support amputees in the besieged territory.

The company said the fitting was made possible through its partnership with Mafaz, Bioniks’ official collaborator in Jordan. The recipient, Sidra, lost her arm during the war and now becomes the first beneficiary of Bioniks’ long-term humanitarian initiative aimed at war victims in Gaza.

“This marks the beginning of Bioniks’ mission to support amputees in Gaza,” the company said in a statement posted to X on Thursday, adding that Sidra’s journey “reflects the resilience of so many in Gaza.”

Bioniks said it hopes to give survivors “mobility, confidence, hope, dignity, and independence ... in a place where conflict has taken so much.”

Bioniks did not specify how many Gaza patients it plans to support or the timeline for future fittings but said its mission will be sustained and scaled in coordination with regional partners.

Founded in Karachi, Bioniks specializes in low-cost, customizable prosthetics using 3D printing and smart sensors. It has gained international recognition for its work with children and war survivors across Pakistan, and has begun expanding its outreach to conflict zones in the region.

The latest war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a cross-border attack on Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel has since been carrying out a devastating air and ground assault on Gaza, whose health ministry says the offensive has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and tens of thousands more have been injured. The fighting has displaced nearly 80 percent of the population and decimated the strip’s already fragile health infrastructure.

Aid organizations have widely reported a growing number of amputations, especially among children, due to Israeli airstrikes and the collapse of trauma care. UNICEF estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 children in Gaza have had one or more limbs amputated. The besieged enclave is now home to more child amputees per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world.

Bioniks said its goal is to reach more children and adults in Gaza with personalized prosthetic limbs and follow-up care.

“Bioniks believes that no one should be left behind when it comes to mobility and dignity,” the company said in the press release. “Through this initiative, our goal is to reach more children and adults affected by war with customized prosthetic limbs and long-term care.”

The company has previously worked with Pakistani hospitals and rehabilitation centers to provide smart prosthetics to underprivileged children and adults, often using crowd-funding and donor support to cover costs.