Islamabad (Web Desk): Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday said that the incumbent government is serious to address the long standing issue of missing persons and was going to re-constitute the committee on it.
Addressing a press conference along with Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar, the law minister said that 10,200 cases of missing persons were registered in the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIoED) out of which around 8,000 case have been addressed.
He said that the former Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government formed a committee on the issue with the representation of all stakeholders including Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and others.
“Now the incumbent government is going to re-constitute the Parliamentary committee to continue its work on the subject, he said, Azam Nazeer said, adding that the issue of missing persons was four decades old thus it couldn’t be resolved over the night.
He said that the involvement of government institutions in the matter couldn’t be denied but no concrete evidence was ever produced before the committee in this regard.
The minister said that reports of missing persons are also not 100% correct every time.
“Two people are facing jail sentences in various cases while one was found among the attackers of Gawadar attack,” he said.
The Pakistan army and people, he said, have lost number of lives in the incidents of terrorism in the country.
The minister said that there is a need to get a political solution along with the legal efforts, adding that if anyone was found involved in a crime he must be prosecuted.
In his remarks on the occasion, the information minister expressed the government's intent to address this issue.
He said the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has resolved 7900 cases out of over ten thousand cases of missing persons.