Human rights groups across the country have been taking out rallies on a regular basis to keep the issue alive. However, so far very few of the missing persons have been recovered.
In 2006 the Supreme Court took up regular hearings of petitions filed on behalf of Pakistan's 'disappeared' or missing persons. However, in November 2007, Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and deposed the majority of judges. Since the elections in February 2008, not much has improved for the "disappeared" or their families. Amnesty International has called on the new government to act now to end this grave human rights violation.
Surprisingly, kidnapping of people continues under the present government. According to the Chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Asma Jehangir, at least 30 people are missing from Swat where the Pakistan army has been operating since May 2009. She says that there are reports of missing persons from South Punjab, Sindh and NWFP even after a democratic government came into power after February 2008 elections.
The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui echoed during Wednesday's proceedings when her counsel, Advocate Hashmat Habib, requested the bench to ask the concerned authorities to inform how Dr. Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist, went missing and was handed over to the US.
Trial of Aafia Siddiqui, accused of firing at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, begins in New York on January 19.
In 2003, Dr. Siddiqui and her three children disappeared while on their way to Karachi airport to get a flight to Islamabad. In August 2008, US officials claimed she had been in their custody in Afghanistan only since July 2008, even though she had disappeared five years earlier. The whereabouts of her two children remain unknown.
Case studies of some of the disappeared persons
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