Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari revealed on Monday that a bill pertaining to enforced disappearances, which was recently passed by the National Assembly (NA), had gone “missing”.
Speaking to media persons at the Ministry of Human Rights, she said: “We had prepared the bill regarding missing persons and it was passed by the [relevant] standing committee and the National Assembly. But it went missing after it was sent to the Senate.”
The minister said there were reports, however, that the bill was now at the Senate Secretariat.
The bill, Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2021, was passed by the NA on November 8, 2021, and is aimed at making amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure.
It was introduced in the National Assembly by the interior minister in June 2021. While initially there was no provision related to the filing of a false complaint or false information about subjecting a person to enforced disappearance, subsequently a provision was added to the bill to declare it a penal offence punishable by up to five years imprisonment with a fine up to Rs500,000.
