PAKISTAN: Hope fades for the “disappeared” under emergency rule

A protest by families of the 'disappeared' in Quetta, Pakistan

LAHORE, 21 November 2007 (IRIN) - Pakistan’s state of emergency declared on 3 November has aggravated the situation for some 100 or so people deemed “missing” in the country, according to rights groups.

In the days that led up to the emergency, a full bench of Pakistan's Supreme Court, headed by the former chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, while hearing a petition on the behalf of 198 people filed early in 2007 by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and 41 other petitions, ordered the government to find and release all the missing people.

In hearings over many months, the court concluded that the “disappeared” people were in the custody of intelligence agencies and 99 were ordered to be released. READ MORE