Govt announces support package of Rs5m for every family of missing persons

The government has announced a support package worth Rs5 million to each family of missing persons, stepping up efforts to provide legal and financial assistance to them, said Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Friday.

The minister remarked while briefing the media on the decisions taken in the federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz earlier today in Islamabad.

Tarar said the federal cabinet discussed the issue of missing persons and approved the support package and added that the premier approved the package in light of the recommendations made by the previous committees on the issue of missing persons.

The law minister said two reports about the missing persons were presented before the cabinet today, adding that the cabinet also approved the constitution of a special committee to examine genuine cases of families in need of support after reviewing the final report of the committees.

He further said the new committee will address the problems being faced by the missing persons' families.

The assistance announced today is not a remuneration, he clarified, adding it is an attempt by the government to share the grief of missing persons' families and resolve their problems.

The federal minister said that there are a lot of "complicated" reasons behind the issue of missing persons, adding that the government has taken strict measures to resolve the issue and most of the cases have been tackled through the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED).

The government is committed to resolving all issues of missing persons by tapping into all resources, Tarar added.

The minister also claimed last month that “only 23% of missing persons’ cases are pending", adding that 10,200 cases of missing persons were registered in the COIED out of which around 8,000 cases have been addressed.

Earlier, Information Minister Atta Tarar had said that in 2011, the Supreme Court formed an inquiry commission about missing persons which sorted out 7,900 cases out of 10,023 cases and now 23% of the cases are pending.

In its report presented in January this year, the missing person's inquiry commission said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 3,485 cases of missing persons, making it the highest number in the country. Causalities in drone attacks and the spike in militancy were the key reasons behind the disappearances, as per the report.

In Balochistan, 2,752 cases related to enforced disappearance were lodged, the commission had said, adding that besides other reasons, fleeing abroad without informing their families, due to the prevailing situation in the province, was among the causes of these cases.

The government's announcement came as the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) activists demanding the recovery of missing persons, called off their sit-in in Gwadar earlier today after successful negotiations with the local administration.

The protesters announced ending their sit-ins in Gwadar and across the province after an agreement was signed by Dr Mahrang Baloch — from the protesters’ side — and Gwadar district’s deputy commissioner.