ISLAMABAD: A total of 125 missing persons cases were submitted to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in the first half of 2025, it emerged on Wednesday.
The commission was set up in 2011 to trace missing persons and fix responsibility on the individuals or organisations responsible for their disappearance.
In the month of June alone, a total of 27 missing persons cases were received nationwide, while 33 cases were disposed of.
The commission offered a monthly breakdown of the cases received and disposed; 26 cases were received in January and 209 disposed of; 12 new cases in February and 104 disposed of; 30 were recieved in March and 34 disposed of; 11 were reported in April and 42 disposed of; 19 were received in May and 62 disposed of.
The total number of cases received up till June 2025 was 10,592, while 1,914 cases of them were disposed of and 6,786 were traced, the commission said.
A total of 4,771 missing persons have returned home, according to the report, while 1,017 people are being held in internment centres and 705 in prisons.
According to the report, the bodies of 293 missing persons have been recovered since the commission was formed in 2011.
Since then, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded the highest number of missing persons received at 3,622, followed by Balochistan at 2,885, Sindh at 1,847, Punjab at 1,752, Islamabad at 405, Azad Jammu and Kashmir at 71, and Gilgit-Baltistan at 10.
KP also had the highest number of missing persons in detention centres at 855.
In December 2024, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court emphasised that only parliament holds the authority to address and resolve the longstanding, yet unlawful, practice of enforced disappearances — a persistent issue that has plagued the nation for decades.
