While there are reports that the practice of enforced disappearance has existed in Pakistan since at least the 1970s, such cases have been recorded in significant numbers in the early 2000s, beginning with Pakistan's involvement in the US-led “war on terror” in late 2001. Since then, hundreds of people accused of terrorism-related offences have reportedly been “disappeared” after being abducted by security agencies and detained in secret facilities. The practice continues unabated until today, with spikes in numbers of alleged enforced disappearances every time the military launches an offensive in the northwestern region of Pakistan, notably in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now legally a part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).

Cases of enforced disappearances are also reported in Balochistan, where the practice is used against political activists and people who are considered sympathetic to separatist or nationalist movements in the province. In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of cases of enforced disappearance in Sindh, where political activists have largely been targeted.

With the “disappearance” of a number of bloggers and activists from major cities in Punjab earlier this year and Zeenat Shahzadi, a Pakistani journalist, going “missing” in August 2015, enforced disappearance has now become a national phenomenon.

However, the government has failed to bring perpetrators to account in even a single case involving enforced disappearance. On the contrary, it has enacted legislation that facilitates the perpetration of enforced disappearance, including by explicitly legalising forms of secret, unacknowledged and incommunicado detention and giving immunity to those responsible.

National Legal Framework

Enforced disappearance is not recognised as a distinct crime in Pakistan. On the rare occasion that the police register criminal complaints in such cases, they do so for the crimes of “abduction” or “kidnapping”. Police also register complaints of enforced disappearances under Section 346 of the Penal Code that relates to “wrongful confinement in secret” and prescribes a penalty of two years imprisonment.

When registering a complaint under these provisions for alleged enforced disappearances, police often refuse to identify members of the security or intelligence forces as the alleged perpetrators. In most cases, such complaints are filed against “unknown persons”.