Defence of Human Rights (DHR), led by activist Amina Masood Janjua, has expressed serious concerns regarding a recent performance report from the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED). The report claims to have resolved an unusually high number of cases in a single month.
In response to these claims, DHR stated that the commission’s handling of 103 cases in just one month is deeply troubling, suggesting that none of these matters received a proper hearing. According to a DHR statement issued on Thursday, this rapid pace implies that cases were dismissed after only a few minutes of review.
The DHR finds this rushed process, which results in one-line conclusions such as, “the detenue disappeared by himself,” to be unacceptable and misleading to the public. The statement noted that, according to its own records, 21 of the 103 disposed of cases were referred by DHR. The commission’s lack of due diligence is evident from the fact that it recently dismissed a case for a person who had resurfaced a decade ago.
The blanket conclusion that 103 individuals disappeared on their own is particularly alarming, especially since DHR possesses records of numerous cases with ample evidence of forced disappearances. DHR also voiced concern over the recent trend of dismissing cases in bulk based on what appear to be wrongful and misleading assumptions. The organization highlighted that the Supreme Court’s original intent in forming this commission was to create a mechanism free from bureaucratic delays and red tape.
