On Tuesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded that the acting Prime Minister and the Chief Election Commissioner take immediate action to locate their forcibly abducted leaders and employees.
Omar Ayub Khan, the Secretary-General of the PTI, expressed concern over the sudden disappearance of the party’s top officials in separate letters addressed to Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and Chief Executive Officer Sikandar Sultan Raja. Omar asserted that duplicates of these letters were distributed to various provincial chief executives. In his correspondence, Omar included the identities of PTI personnel, but their current whereabouts were no longer ascertainable. These individuals included Sheikh Rashid, Owais Younis, Irfan Saleem, Abdul Karim Khan, Sadaqat Abbasi, Usman Dar, Farrukh Habib, and Sadaqat Abbasi, the leader of the Awami Muslim League (AML).
The PTI leader described the issue of enforced disappearances as “the most serious violation of the law and the Constitution” and “the most blatant and open form of pre-poll rigging” in preparation for a “free, fair, and impartial election.” According to Omar, the forced disappearance of these individuals constitutes a blatant infringement of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Pakistani Constitution. He emphasized the urgent need for both their release and the prosecution of those responsible for these disappearances. The letter conveyed that the endeavor, which targets the PTI, the most widely supported political party in Pakistan, also fundamentally subverts the Elections Act of 2017.
This campaign of forced disappearances violates Section 230(1)(d), which stipulates that the caretaker government must remain impartial to all individuals and political parties, and Section 186(d), which prohibits any official from taking actions intended to influence the outcome of the election. These violations occur within the context of the caretaker government’s primary responsibility to conduct free and fair elections. In his letter, Omar highlighted that the enforced disappearances contravene Pakistan’s commitments under multiple international agreements on such matters.
These agreements include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which are legally binding on Pakistan based on customary international law principles.
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