Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would meet a three-member representative committee of the missing persons who have been staging a sit-in in Islamabad for more than a week.
The families of the Baloch missing persons, who have been raising their voice for the recovery of their loved ones for decades, are staging a sit-in in the federal capital against the enforced disappearances.
On Saturday, the human rights minister visited the protest camp and assured that their reservations will be relayed to the prime minister.
“On instructions from the PM, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari met with the missing persons’ families this afternoon,” said a statement shared by Mazari on her Twitter account.
According to the statement, Mazari told them that the PM wanted them to “end their dharna”.
“He [PM] would meet a three-member representative committee from amongst them in March and Dr Mazari would arrange this meeting,” the statement said, adding that the families have been asked to “hand over the list of their missing persons to Dr Mazari so that their status could be ascertained and conveyed to the PM before the meeting with the families’ representatives”.
“The families requested that priority be given to the missing persons of the 13 families present at the dharna,” the statement added.
Earlier this week, a meeting of the federal cabinet had expressed concern over the longstanding issue of missing persons and directed the authorities concerned to make prompt legislation in the parliament to ensure that there was no missing person in the present government.
Earlier this week, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz visited the camp of the Baloch families. At the time, she urged the army chief and Inter-Services Intelligence chief to play their role to address the issue.
She criticised the government for not reaching out to the protesters, saying that it was the duty of the state to take care of its citizens.
A bill seeking criminalisation of enforced disappearances was proposed by the Human Rights Ministry in 2018. It was sent to the Ministry of Law, but the ministry has yet to clear the proposed legislation despite the passage of a considerable amount of time.
