“We need your support and hope to see our dreams coming true”
On 30 July 2005, businessman Masood Janjua was travelling by bus with one of his friends, Faisal Faraz, to Peshawar in north Pakistan, from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Somewhere along the way, they disappeared.
Their families immediately began searching for them. Eventually, they learned that the two men had been forcibly disappeared by forces loyal to then President Pervez Musharraf.
Today, the families still don’t have information on the whereabouts of their loved ones.
“Our three children were very young at the time. It would be impossible for anyone to understand what we’ve all gone through during these 16 years of torture and misery,” said Amina, Masood’s wife, at the twenty-first session of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, in Geneva, which began on 13 September. At each session, the Committee reserves a space for hearing the stories of victims of enforced disappearances. It uses these testimonies to identify options to support victims and their families and governments of concern.
Amina described the period of shock and anguish she experienced when her husband was disappeared. Their family had to take care of the children and Masood’s business deteriorated.
Soon after, she connected with three other families of disappeared people to initiate a movement that held protests in front of the Parliament House, the Supreme Court and the presidential residence. Together, the families transformed this movement into an association known as the Defence of Human Rights (DHR).
Fear, uncertainty and grief
Sixteen years later, Amina is still searching for answers. At the same time, DHR has developed into a well-known organization that envisions “a world without enforced disappearances, injustices and where the disappeared are reunited with their loved ones.” Families of disappeared victims from around Pakistan have now joined the association.
As Amina told the Committee, enforced disappearances in Pakistan have become a “widespread social evil.” Victims include activists, HRDs, writers, poets, journalists, students and lawyers.
“Fear, uncertainty, grief, economic and emotional devastation have become a part of the daily life of the families of the disappeared,” she said.
Since its inception, DHR has registered 2,818 cases of disappeared Pakistanis. A total of 1,358 individuals have been traced by the organization and subsequently reunited with their families. Sadly, 77 disappeared people have reportedly lost their lives in custody.
Amina and her DHR colleagues have strongly advocated for the Government to criminalize enforced disappearance in the country. As a result, a bill will soon be brought before Pakistan’s Parliament.
While Amina is pleased with this progress, she insists that there is still a long way to go.
“Pakistan needs to ratify the Convention so that authorities can rely on the Committee to get the guidance they need to better address enforced disappearances, in law and in practice,” she said.
She urged the Committee to support this process. “We hope to see our dreams coming true that Masood and all the disappeared will be traced and that Pakistan will stop this practice once and for all,” she said.
