Pakistan records 379 new cases of enforced disappearances in 2024

Islamabad: Pakistan reported 379 new cases of enforced disappearances in 2024, highlighting the ongoing struggle to address this human rights issue.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED), which was set up in 2011 to trace the missing persons and fix responsibility on the responsible individuals or organisations, shared the fresh data.

The commission data showed that apart from 379 new cases registered in 2024, another 427 cases were also disposed of in the year, the Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The commission said that the total number of cases received up till December 2024 was 10,467 while 8,216 cases were addressed, of which a total of 6,599 people traced and 1,617 cases disposed of, while 2,251 cases were still unresolved.

Out of 6,599 traced, 4,613 were returned home, 1,011 were present in internment centres, 687 were in prisons and 288 were found dead.

The monthly progress report for December stated that 29 cases were received and 44 were disposed of with 10 of them unrelated to enforced disappearances, 23 returned to their homes, five were confined in internment centres, four were confined in jails and two bodies were found.

The issue of missing persons is pending resolution for years and the Supreme Court observed last month that only parliament holds the authority to address and resolve the longstanding, yet unlawful, practice of enforced disappearances — a persistent issue that has plagued the nation for decades.

“The solution to this problem is to be found by parliament,” observed Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, a member of the six-judge Constitutional Bench.

“The court has always recognised parliament as the supreme body and now it is for parliament to prove it so,” he said.

On April 23, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said that the issue of missing persons could “not be solved overnight” but the government was committed to finding a solution by first achieving a consensus amongst all stakeholders.

The law minister emphasised that when discussing the issue of missing persons, it must be noted that Pakistan had performed the role of a frontline state in a war-ridden area for the past four decades, adding that the circumstances in neighbouring countries had further exacerbated internal challenges, according to Dawn.

Majority of missing persons belong to Balochistan and it has been a longstanding demand of the provincial political leaders from the federal government to resolve this issue. However cases of enforced disappearances had also been reported from other areas of the country.