Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani Wednesday said that both the parliament and judiciary failed to do anything substantive as far as the lingering issue of enforced disappearances is concerned. These remarks by the Senate chairman came when Senator Farhatullah Babar of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said that since August 30 is observed as the International Day of the Disappeared, the government should implement Senate committee's recommendations.
The Senate Committee of the Whole had recently forwarded its recommendations on speedy and inexpensive justice to the government, one of which is related to missing persons and includes a draft legislation to bring the state agencies under the ambit of the law. To this, Rabbani said that senators like Babar and others have been constantly taking up the issue but it all ended in smoke as both the Parliament and judiciary have failed to resolve the issue of missing persons.
"We hang our heads in shame, as neither the Parliament nor the judiciary could address the issue of enforced disappearance in the country," he lamented. The recent interview by former President General Pervez Musharraf also echoed in the Senate in which he had claimed that the top nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan knelt before him and cried when he confronted him after seeing irrefutable evidence for his involvement in nuclear proliferation.
Senator Babar said that this embarrassed the whole nation and former military ruler must be investigated for his accusations against Khan, as smuggling nuclear centrifuges can not be done by a single individual. "This cannot be done by only AQ Khan without the support of any other person and Musharraf should be probed for his recent revelations in which he has put all the blame on the scientist, which is unbelievable," he added. The chairman Senate condemned the statement of General Musharraf, saying why the former general had said it all at this stage, especially in the wake of US President Donald Trump's tough talk against Pakistan.
"If half of such statement [General Musharraf's interview] could've been given by a civilian prime minister or president, he could have been in the doock right away," he observed. Rehman Malik, another PPP senator, claimed that he had some authentic documents about the controversy which he was ready to share with the house in an-in-camera briefing. "I have some details about what Musharraf talks about, so let me brief the house in-camera as this is not going to stop here," he added. Rabbani said that the issue can be discussed in Senate Committee of the Whole as there is a need to look into the matter.