Family members of missing people have warned that they would resort to hunger strike in front of Parliament House until informed about the whereabouts of their near and dear ones.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, family members of five missing people (who are believed to be picked by security agencies) would resort to hunger strike in front of Parliament House if they are not informed about the whereabouts of these people.
They also demanded of the government that these people should be openly tried in court if they are involved in any crime, instead of keeping them in illegal confinement.
Those who are reported missing include Masood Jangua, an educationist from Rawalpindi (went missing in July 2005), Faisal Faraz a mechanical engineer from Lahore (went missing in July 2005), Ateequr Rehman a scientific officer from Atomic Energy Commission (since July 2004), Majid Khan a software engineer from Karachi (in March 2003), and Mohammad Mansoor, a computer expert (went missing from Peshawar in February 2005).
According to their family members, despite their frequent contacts with officials, they had been still kept unaware about the present condition of these people. These people also appealed to the President and Prime Minister to help them in recovering the missing persons or let them know about their whereabouts.
These family members have started protest from September 6 in front of Parliament House with the help of a civil society organisation named 'Islamic Centre for Defence of Human Rights'.
They also met with Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and other parliamentarians, who assured them that they would be informed about the whereabouts of their near and dear ones within three days.
But, they said, despite lapse of four days, the concerned officials turned a deaf ear towards this serious issue. So they vowed that they would hold hunger strike in front of Parliament House till they would be informed about the fates of the missing ones.
Majid Khan's family claimed that the 26 years old software engineer had been picked from his Karachi home in 2003 and now he had been handed over to Americans, and presently he is in Guantanamo Bay prison.
Khalid Khawaja of Islamic Centre for Defence of Human Rights said that picking citizens and keeping them illegal confinement was against the fundamental human rights and Constitution of Pakistan.
Instead of keeping them in confinement, they should be openly tried in court if there was any charge against them. He criticised that on the one hand Pakistan is celebrating August 14 as Independent Day and, on the other, it violates the fundamental rights of its own citizens at the behest of external powers.
He appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo motu action against the violation of fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens by certain government agencies.
Recently, he said, Sindh High Court had issued a directive that the government should inform the court and family members of those Pakistanis who are in the custody of other countries.
But, he said, the government neither informs the court and nor family members about the condition of such people. He also said that the administration of Adiala Jail was not allowing prisoners to continue their studies and appear in exams.
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