As the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances held meetings with Justice (r) Javed Iqbal and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, members of the National Assembly expressed concern over the UN experts visit, calling it “the first step to disintegrate Pakistan”.
Questioning the mandate and rationale of the visiting United Nations’ working group on involuntary disappearances in Balochistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MNA Raza Hayat Hiraj, while speaking on a point of order, raised concerns about the intention of the visitors, stating that this visit may “compromise the sovereignty and solidarity” of the state of Pakistan.
He also came down hard on the country’s Foreign Office, saying the visit by the UN working group was a big question mark over the performance of the Foreign Office. “Who allowed the visit … who issued them visas (for visit) … Who determined and approved the mandate of this team … is Pakistan a banana republic … this is a failure of the Foreign Office … when the parliamentary committee on Balochistan is working and the apex court has already taken cognizance of the situation, why such a team has been sent,” remarked Hiraj .
He said it was also not clear which people the working group would meet in Balochistan and other parts of the country.
He said when the country was being run by a democratic government and its judiciary was independent and when parliament was in session, what was the rationale of such a visit by the UN team.
“Almost 99 percent of people in Balochistan support the federation. But there might one percent population whose bank accounts may be in Switzerland and whose families are residing abroad. These people might meet the visitors and paint a false picture representing Balochistan,” Hiraj added.
Disassociating himself from the performance of the intelligence agencies, he said he had never supported the malfunctioning of the agencies. However, he said whenever a Pakistani was killed or held abroad on suspicion of terrorism, nobody allowed access and Pakistan was never allowed to send such a mission.
He sought permission by the chair to submit an adjournment motion in parliament to discuss the contentious issue due to sensitivity of the matter.
Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi sought view of Minister for Kashmir Affairs Manzoor Wattoo, who supported the views expressed by Hiraj. He said an adjournment motion may be brought to debate the issue which was of national significance.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq of the PML-Nawaz questioned the restoration of services of retired army officers and their court martial in the NLC corruption scam.
“Why a civilian institution could not hold the army generals accountable? Are army officers not accountable under the law? Civilian institutions should have held the officers accountable and they should not have been restored,” he argued.He urged the political and democratic leadership of the country to take cognizance of the matter.
Zafar Baig Bhittanni of FATA also supported Saad’s views and said if politicians were held accountable, the army officers should be as well by civilians. “Is there no honest civilian officer who could hold the generals accountable? If the parliament is supreme, it should do its duty whether it is about judiciary, army or any other institution,” he remarked.
Jamshed Dasti of the Pakistan People’s Party raised the issue of floods in southern Punjab and said the torrential rain had wreaked havoc in DG Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts, but the Punjab government had failed to address the matter.
He said the Punjab government had appointed corrupt officials in the area who were paying no heed to the issues being faced by the people of South Punjab.
Dasti said even the report by a judicial commission on Taunsa Barrage breach last year was not made public. He said that he had written a letter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry requesting him to make public the report, but to no avail.
UN working group: Meanwhile, the UN working group met Justice (r) Iqbal to discuss the issue of enforced disappearances and missing persons in Pakistan.
A source told Pakistan Today that during the meeting the commission exchanged information on a list of 106 missing persons. However, it was informed that eight of the 106 missing persons had been recovered, and 21 of these cases had been resolved by the Supreme Court. During a briefing, the delegates were informed that the United Nations Secretariat of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had forwarded to the government the addresses and telephone numbers of 28 cases which were found incorrect.
The commission was told that most of these cases belonged to 80s and 90s for which no details were available, whereas 20 cases were about foreign nationals that were not relevant to Pakistan.
It was also informed that investigations in 29 cases were underway and some important developments had been made.
Earlier, the UN delegation visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held sittings with some senior FO officials, during which they were assured that the government machinery, including the Supreme Court, were engaged recovering the people considered victims of enforced disappearances.
The source said the United Nations working group would visit various cities in Punjab from September 11 to September 14. Then it would go to Quetta on September 15 and finally by September 17, it would visit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Missing persons situation indeed dreadful and Supreme Court is fully seized of it and is pushing all authorities to resolve the issue. So why is there a need for a U.N. team to look into it.
Where was this U.N. body when U.S. was illegally kidnapping people all over the world and rendering them to torture at various hidden locations and where was this body when over 400 innocent people were detained at Guantanamo and tortured on a daily basis, then released for being innocent. Who stood up for them.
Where has been this U.N. body when U.S. drones have been killing innocent people in Waziristan under the name of collateral damage.
In view of the pathetic performance of U.N. in all these matters, Government of Pakistan should respectfully request this team to leave the country until and unless they are willing to respond to points raised above.
UN has become a" has been" institution and lost its credibility .It is not serving the purpose it was formed for and the Sec General is not impartial at all. He is more or less a rubber stamp for USA.I feel NAM is a more representative body who should replace UN
Or maybe we can re direct them to Kashmir! after all Kashmir is the oldest unresolved dispute in the UN!!
Permission the UN team to visit here is simply mean to give them sound ways to defame and call it as a failure state. They have been directed here with certain targets to encourage the anti state groups, render them safe heavens and protection of their interests. These are the understandings of common men but why our leaders are following the otherwise track.
Missing person case is a serious issue. It started during Musharraf days and has continued to this day. Even SC has failed to act decisively. Let’s not go into denial about this barbarity meted out by our agencies. If we cannot act ourselves, then it is only right that UN steps in. If the missing persons are guilty but cannot be brought to justice (Malik Ishaq and Maulana Aziz cases being examples), then do fake encounters and return the bodies. Keeping them missing is not right.
Lo and Behold ! ………….. Memogate – II; courtesy the demcratic government of Pakistan.
With the Supreme Court seized with with the issue, what was the need for this open insult? This whole issue of investigation by the UN smells of a rat and rank disloyalty to the state.
Salams
No doubt the Chief Justice did his best to put some sense into the heads of agencies but it is unfortunate that his most sincere suggestions in this regard fell on deaf ears. He even warned that once the UN steps in to investigate the case of missing persons then we will regret it, so it has happened. Now there is no point crying that it is improper. With a collapsing economy, anarchy, failure of Law and order, targeted killings and general apathy of common man, we do not have much choice.
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