Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded leader Saleem Saifullah Khan on Sunday said parliamentarians should present and endorse a 21st amendment for the release of missing persons, just as they passed the 20th Amendment Bill unanimously in the House to legalise the election of their colleagues.
Saifullah on Sunday visited the camp set up by families of missing persons and expressed solidarity with the affected people. More families and relatives of missing persons are gathering at the camp in Islamabad – set up by the families of missing persons under the aegis of Defence of Human Rights (DHR) – outside the Parliament House. DHR Chairperson Amna Janjua said 15 new families of missing persons arrived at the camp on Sunday, adding that several other families had been in contact and would also arrive to the camp from various parts of the country soon.
Politicians, human rights activists, lawyers and other people, including a large number of federal capital residents, approached the camp to express solidarity and a majority was seen criticising the agencies attitude towards poor and helpless people. Agriculture University Peshawar student Imran Khan, hailing from South Waziristan Agency and now settled in Peshawar, said his brother Advocate Aurangzeb was on way to Peshawar High Court with another lawyer when they were picked by intelligence agencies on July 14, 2011. The agencies released the other lawyer after torture, but Aurangzeb was still in their custody. “Advocate Elahi informed us that the agencies’ personnel had threatened him to not disclose to the court how both lawyers were picked up,” Imran said. Another family of a missing person said after arriving at the camp that armed forces had picked both their male and female family members and destroyed their house completely. Reiterating her resolve, Amna Janjua said the camp for the release of missing persons would only end after the release of the last of the people being illegally detained by spy agencies.
Amna also demanded the government to release the missing persons immediately and impose a complete ban on illegal detention of citizens by agencies.
