Urging the government to resolve the issue of purportedly missing persons, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday “appealed” to the government to “at least inform” their families if their relatives were “dead or alive”.
Maryam was speaking to reporters at D-Chowk in Islamabad where the families of missing persons in Balochistan have gathered for days now in a camp outside the National Press Club, demanding the recovery of their loved ones.
Urging the top military leadership to resolve the matter, she said: “I want to say this to the army chief and DG ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] as well: They are citizens of your country, they are your daughters, your mothers.”
“Produce people, who are alive, in courts and those are not [alive], at least tell the families that they are dead.”
At the protest site, Maryam also met Sammi Baloch, daughter of Dr Deen Muhammad, who was “abducted” by unknown men in 2009. For over 11 years, Baloch, now 22, gathered outside the Quetta Press Club, wanting to know who took her father.
On the occasion, Maryam also censured the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for failing to reach out to the protestors.
“If you cannot recover their loved ones, at least […] inform them where their loved ones, who are in torture cells, are,” she said.
“They won’t do anything, they will just cry and fall silent but at least the agony that they experience every day will end.”
Maryam also asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to visit the protestors. “[…] Prime Minister House is […] hardly five minutes away [from here],” she said.
“These girls told me they have been sitting out here for a week. You don’t have to answer the [security] agencies, you have to answer God.”
The PML-N VP also indirectly spoke out against federal ministers Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and Fawad Chaudhry, though she did not name either of them.
“The oppressed do not have a province. Sindhi, Punjabi, even if someone is from KPK or Balochistan, an oppressed person is oppressed [despite their province],” she said regarding the minister’s comments on the law and order situation.
“For God’s sake don’t sprinkle salt on their wounds. At least tell your ministers not to worsen their grief and you should come and put your hand on their heads.”
When asked why the PML-N government did not take any step to resolve the matter during its tenure, Maryam said: “All I can do right now is express solidarity […] I can let them know that they are from Balochistan but they are not alone.”
“It’s not right to abduct them in the middle of the night and not tell their families of their whereabouts for 10 years,” she maintained.
She also pointed out that courts were functional in the country and anyone suspected of being involved in a crime can be produced before them.
Independent political observers believe some missing persons may have joined militant groups, sponsored and trained by India to promote insurgency in Balochistan, and not every person missing is attributable to the state.
The military in 2018 set up a special cell at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi to resolve cases of missing persons.
In September, the Ministry of Interior started reviewing a draft bill to criminalise enforced disappearances, with no deadline on when it will be finalised. Before that, it had been with the Ministry of Law and Justice since January 2019 for “vetting”.
