On Monday, the Senate Secretariat claimed that the bill seeking to criminalize enforced disappearances was not lost but rather sent back to the National Assembly after being approved by the Senate. This bill, known as the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2021, was passed by the National Assembly on November 8, 2021, with the goal of making amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure.
In 2022, Shireen Mazari, the then human rights minister, claimed that the bill had gone missing after being sent to the Senate following approval by the relevant standing committee and the National Assembly.
Subsequently, Mazari also made the claim that she was summoned to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters regarding the bill. She further mentioned that after the bill was presented in the National Assembly (NA), it was referred to the interior committee where unidentified individuals attempted to alter its clauses. She expressed disappointment that the bill went missing en route to the Senate.
The matter of the bill being “missing” came up in the Supreme Court on January 2 during a hearing on enforced disappearances. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa expressed his astonishment at the bill’s disappearance from the Senate. He noted that this incident took place when the PTI was in power, saying that a serious allegation had been made against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.
In a statement released on Monday, the Senate Secretariat referred to the Supreme Court hearing on January 2 and acknowledged that a bill, originating from the National Assembly, appeared to have vanished during transmission to the Senate.
The statement denied the allegations that the Senate chairman hindered the federal minister’s attempt to have the bill passed. “Still, a false impression was created in the media that the bill actually went missing and Senate chairman or Senate Secretariat had a role in it,” it noted.
The issue of the criminalization of enforced disappearance was put on the backburner after the bill disappeared during the PTI government. Recently, caretaker Prime Minister Anwar Kakar attempted to justify the practice. He criticized those who are extending support to the ongoing Baloch sit-in in Islamabad against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
