A/HRC/19/58
Urgent Appeals
491. The Working Group transmitted two communications under its urgent appeals
procedure to the Government. The first communication was sent on 30 December 2010,
together with two other Special Procedures mechanisms, and concerned Messrs. Siddique
Eido and Yousaf Baloch, who were allegedly abducted in Pasni by men in civilian clothes
and others wearing the uniform of the Federal Paramilitary Force of Pakistan Frontier
Constabulary on 21 December 2010. The second was sent on 5 May 2011, together with
three other Special Procedures mechanisms, and concerned Messrs. Riaz Kakepoto, Shah
Nawaz Bhutto, Ali Nawab Mehar, and Jam Bhutto, members of Jeay Sindh Mutehda
Mahaz, a Sindhi speaking nationalist group based in Pakistan, who were allegedly arrested
and taken to an unknown destination by Pakistani security forces in plain clothes on 11
April 2011. The Government acknowledged receipt of these two communications.
General Allegations
Summary of the general allegation
492. Information was submitted by sources concerning obstacles encountered in the
implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance in Pakistan. This information was transmitted to the Government on 9
September 2011, after the Working Group’s ninety-fourth session.
493. The source informed that many activists, teachers, journalists, and lawyers disappeared
in Balochistan, Pakistan. The disappearances were attributed to the security forces of the
Government of Pakistan, in particular to the frontier corps and intelligence agencies. It was
alleged that these security forces were often accompanied by men in plain clothes. It was
alleged that, since October 2010, every month saw an increase in the number of cases of
alleged disappearances and that these acts were carried out with impunity.
494. The sources also indicated that these human rights abuses created a climate of fear for
the families of the disappeared and that they were inhibited to speak out in fear that security
agents would kill their loved ones or abduct other family members in reprisal. It was
alleged that the Government of Pakistan was failing to meet its obligation under
international law, as reflected in the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, to take effective measures to prevent and end acts of enforced
disappearance, to ensure that those responsible for those violations were brought to justice
and that surviving victims and families were provided with reparations in accordance with
international standards.
495. It was alleged that the Judicial Commission, created by the Government of Pakistan in
March 2010 to investigate cases of enforced disappearances across Pakistan, including
Balochistan, had a narrow mandate and was failing to record statements of released
individuals to gain information about the circumstances of their disappearances and to use
this information to bring perpetrators to justice. The Commission was also criticised for its
failure to investigate the role of the intelligence agencies, the main organs accused of
involvement in acts of enforced disappearances.
496. It was reported that the Commission had been able to trace 134 missing persons, of
whom 23 detainees had so far been released. However, the list of traced and released
persons was not publicly available and the names of the missing persons on the list were
not known in Balochistan. In addition, the list of traced individuals did not contain the
names of those who disappeared during the Musharraf era, or at least governmental
agencies had not admitted that those individuals were in custody.
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