Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Tuesday that the government was taking the issue of disappearances very seriously and was making all-out efforts to strengthen the domestic mechanisms to address the humanitarian issue and ensure rule of law in the country.
She said this while meeting a two-member team of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances led by Olivier de Frouville, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group, who called on her, at the Foreign Office on Tuesday.
The FM welcomed the Working Group and briefed them on the steps taken by the government for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country. She said that an independent judiciary, free media and vibrant civil society were in the vanguard of national efforts to address the issue.
She hoped that the Working Group would reflect in its report the commitment of the government and efforts of the independent judiciary, free media and civil society for the protection of human rights in Pakistan.
The members of the Working Group thanked the foreign minister for receiving them and appreciated the government’s commitment for the promotion and protection of human rights.
The Chair-Repporteur said that the Working Group’s mandate was to act as a bridge between the families of the missing persons and the concerned governments. The Working Group was neither an investigative nor fact finding Mission, he said adding that the Working Group would clarify any misperceptions during its end-of-the-visit interaction with the media on 20th September, 2012.
