Lahore, November 4: The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has referred the case of suspected enforced disappearance victim, Abdul Wahid Baloch, to the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR).

The Senate committee had requested the HRCP team to brief it on a fact-finding conducted in the case by HRCP’s Sindh chapter.

Abdul Wahid Baloch, a social activist, had been picked up from near Superhighway toll plaza in Karachi on 26 July, 2016.

After a brief discussion, the senators made the following recommendations:

(1) the Senate should approach the government to present Wahid Baloch in a court of law; (2) the provincial government should be urged become a party to the case before the court; (3) report of the Senate committee should be pursued; (4) the anti-torture bill passed by the Senate should be adopted by the National Assembly as well; and (5) Pakistan should sign the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The Committee thereafter referred the case to Justice (r) Ali Nawaz Chohan, the NCHR chairperson, who also attended the meeting.

Zohra Yusuf
Chairperson