Originally published by The Watchtower. Featured by South Asia Times (SAT) for informational purposes, with attribution to the original author and publisher.
The post-9/11 period in Pakistan’s political history is an era when the country’s foreign and security policies increasingly came under western influence. The Musharraf government aligned Pakistan with the US-led war against terror. This led to deepening of security cooperation and engagement with international organizations. This was not simply a government-to-government engagement. Islamabad was flooded with International Non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups. A study citing Pakistani government reports stated 140 international NGOs were registered with the government of Pakistan between 2001-2010. Many of these INGOs were partially working as human rights advocacy groups. After the 2005 earthquake these INGOs spread to every nook and corner of the country.
The mushroom growth of INGOs and advocacy groups also coincided with the emergence of issues of enforced disappearances as major political and media issues in the country’s public life. In this regard the period between 2005-2007 is of particular importance. In 2005 an earthquake took place in the northern parts of the country, which was followed by the arrival of many INGOs in Pakistan. And in 2007 there was a popular lawyers’ movement against the military government of General Pervaiz Musharraf. It was during this period when the disappearances of people alleged links to militancy, the role of intelligence agencies, and the media campaigns led by families of disappeared persons and human-rights activists increasingly entered public debate.
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Here I would like to introduce an argument of one of my close friends, who is a retired military official. He argues that the phenomenon of missing people or Enforced disappearance is a global problem. He says the UN has recorded numerous Missing person/ Enforced disappearance cases across 115 countries including Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka, Chile, Ethiopia, Syria, African countries, Bangladesh, India, China, Russia, US and Pakistan.
* In the US, approximately over 500,000 cases pertaining to ‘missing persons’, out of which about 100,000 are still active cases.
* In the UK, every 90 seconds a new case of missing person is registered. Approximately 300,000 individuals are reported missing within territorial jurisdiction of the UK every year, out of which around 4,500 cases pertain to ‘long-term’ disappearance of individuals.
* A report by ‘World Population Review’ unveils that in India over 350,000 cases of missing persons are reported and registered annually. Report further divulges that approximately 2,130 people go missing every day.
Why then the issue in Pakistan has been converted into problem about the legitimacy of the state. Pakistani officialdom admits that the “portrayal of Pakistan’s missing persons issue as a systematic state policy is driven by a nexus between anti-state elements within Pakistan, Western lobbyists and political fronts for terrorist organizations operating in Europe.
“Through coordinated advocacy, lobbying and media engagement these networks project unverified allegations as established facts, manufacturing a narrative of enforced disappearances to malign state institutions and advance vested anti-Pakistan agendas”.
I think there has been a strategic miscalculation on the part of the state to allow these advocacy groups and INGOs to dominate the public discourse in the post-911 period. And the physical presence of these advocacy groups and INGO in Islamabad and in every nook and corner of the country played significant part in converting the issue of missing persons into such a huge problem for Pakistani governments. The military government opened itself and society at large for such a massive engagement with representative elements of western societies, without taking into consideration the political implications of such an engagement was a huge mistake.
Around the world it is very easy to distinguish between public diplomacy, advocacy campaigns, political support, covert intelligence activities. These are not interchangeable. Especially, in a country like Pakistan there should be clear laws which should distinguish between public diplomacy and covert intelligence activity. I think our successive government failed to make a distinction between these quite different activities and allowed hostile forces to convert the domestic problem of missing people into an issue of legitimacy of the state.
The Pakistani state now is not denying the problem itself. Rather successive governments in Pakistan have taken measures to address the problem, some of these measures have borne fruits. “1st Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) was established in May 2010, resolving 256 of 392 registered cases, with 136 transferred to 2nd Commission in March 2011”.
“Following successive changes in composition and leadership, the Federal Government reconstituted the Commission on 25 June 2025. After a leadership transition, Justice (R) Manzoor Hussain Malik was appointed Chairman on 6 April 2026. The Commission continues to provide an institutional mechanism for examining complaints, tracing missing people and pursuing case resolutions. The claim of the government is that out of 11035 cases registered with COIED, 9596 have been resolved while remaining 1439 active registered cases (13.05%) are under investigation. Out of 1439 active registered cases, more than 80% of cases belong to far-flung areas, where complainants do not appear before Commission on regular basis for certain reasons which causes delay in finalization of inquiry/ investigation process.
The problem is not that the government is in denial. The problem is not that society is insensitive. It is not. The problem is that the issue itself has been overblown and turned into a question of legitimacy of the state. Government officials monitoring the situation say that now the campaign against the state has been joined by terrorists involved in terrorism related activities and joined a proscribed organization, Illegal immigrants to Europe via Afghanistan/Iran. And the Individuals killed abroad including Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Zanobia Brigade have been listed as missing persons in the lists prepared by advocacy groups. Similarly, absconders involved in criminal activities / facing trial in the court, proclaimed Offenders also reported as missing persons by families to avoid apprehensions have been listed as missing.
The issue of missing people has ceased to be a domestic human rights problem any longer. It is an issue which is used by countries hostile to Pakistan to serve their geopolitical interests. Pakistan’s security interests and protection from politically motivated campaigns lie in aligning its strategic attentiveness against foreign interference with institutional accountability and credibility at home.
Umer Farooq
Umer Farooq is an Islamabad-based Afghanistan specialist and senior journalist. A journalist since 1995, he has worked with Dawn and The Herald and covered Afghanistan and conflicts for Pakistani and international outlets. His analysis focuses on Pakistan–Afghanistan relations, the Taliban and the TTP, and regional security after the United States’ withdrawal.
