Appearance or Disappearance; future decides better 

Disappearance or missing is the term which is commonly used in Pakistan, no reason from which political party, sect or religion you belongs. Those are quite lucky which were appeared alive or returned home after their disappearance.

In 2017 which will near to end in some days, it recorded our tears, our protests, and our complaints about the illegal abduction or detention of our citizens. According to the media and private sources, more than 373 people are missing til July. A total of 377 cases of missing persons were heard by the commission in different parts of the country in July 2017 — 180 in Islamabad, 47 in Lahore and 150 in Karachi. Please click here for reference.

According to the Dawn News official report which was related to the missing persons in 2016, there were 728 persons missing in the country. According to the interviews with families, area mates and neighborhoods most of them are abducted by LEAs. In January last year, 56 cases were reported to the commission, in February 66, in March 44, April 99, May 91, June 60, July 94, August 55, September 34, October 36, November 45 and 48 in December.

In 2015, as many as 649 cases of missing persons were registered with the commission, which disposed of 524 of them. According to the report, during the last six years, the commission received 3,740 complaints from different parts of the country out of which 2,521 were decided till December 31. The commission held 398 proceedings, including 212 in Islamabad and 186 in Karachi. The report claimed that since 2011 the commission traced 1,882 missing persons while 338 cases were disposed of

Majority of the traced cases the relatives could get the bodies of the missing persons or they were informed that their relatives were detained at some internment centre.

— Amna Masood Janjua, the chairperson Defence of Human Rights (DHR)

But 2017 quite differs from last multiple years because people are now protesting against the illegal detention of their loved ones. Every protest has many demands but the similar thing was everyone has a demand same for all press release which is:

If our beloved ones are found in guilty then court has right to decide the punishment. If anyone founds or have any evidence against or beloved once they produce them in court; they all are ready to support the fair trail.

There are many activists which are trying to solve this issue, some are trying to solve the issue on the ground level and some are trying to solve it in House of Law (Senate/Parliament).

The privileged class doesn’t care about the issues and problems of the downtrodden, they don’t matter. I wrote Invisible People to highlight the class that’s invisible and needs to be brought to the front. These are the real people, they should be the biggest stakeholders of Pakistan. They should be part of national decision making.

— Raza Rabbani (Chairman Senate of Pakistan)

Mr Raza Rabbani is not only the single person to raise this voice in the Senate; Syed Ali Raza Abidi which is the MNA from NA-251 Karachi also supported the speech on this serious matter.

These are some politicians which raised the voice against the illegal detentions, there are many mainstream Civil activists and religious scholars which were organized the protests, sit-ins, rallies and do multiple pressers against this kind of illegal detentions. Please click here for reference.

I am not requesting you to go in the previous history people protested yesterday outside the Karachi Press Club under the banner of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

It seemed that the perpetrators had no regard for the missing people to be given the rights owed to them under the constitution as citizens of this country.

— Asad Iqbal Butt (HRCP Sindh’s vice chairperson)

Citing constitutional clauses, the statement highlighted that no person could be taken into custody without being informed of the charges against them and that it was the right of every person to be provided with the counsel of a lawyer of their own choosing.

If a man declared an Indian agent had the right to meet his people than so do all other citizens of this country. Release all missing persons and produce them in court.

— Rashid Rizvi (Voice of Shia Missing Persons)

On the illegal detentions, the Shiite’s peoples and its mainstream activists protest quite active rather than anyone else. They also organized rallies, protests, sit-ins, hunger strike and also a movement which was known as Fill The the Jails. Also, there is a point; authorities stated that they are using Balance policy to maintain the peace in the country.

BALANCE POLICY — If terrorists killed more than 80K people of a country including Doctors, Engineers, Politicians, Students, and Government officials and you relive them by arresting all people who are affected due to these terrorist activities are known as Balance Policy. pic.twitter.com/0qdwzaKKf8 — нαι∂єя яι𝔷νι ҉ (@iamHaiderRizvi) December 20, 2017

According to the constitution, we have right to ask why we’re standing in the line of culprit when we served as the defender of this nation.

Lastly I just have some words to end that what are we plan for giving our next generation appearance or disappearance; future decide better, strive to change you future from dark; just think.

— Haider Rizvi (Spokesperson, Shia Missing Persons Movement)