Reposted from The News | February 17, 2013 | "˜Culture of impunity worsening plight of missing persons'
Also see Dawn.com | February 11, 2013 | The Baloch Who is Not Missing by Mohammad Hanif

Karachi

A culture of impunity is increasing in the country to such an extent that those involved in cases of missing persons are sure that they can even get away with murder, said celebrated novelist and journalist Mohammed Hanif on Saturday.

He expressed these views during the launch of his book "˜The Baloch who is not missing and others who are' on the second day of the 4th Karachi Literature Festival here.

Hanif said Baloch people who were missing were "like all of us, educated and middle-class persons", and that they were not tribal people.

Referring to the case of a brother of Farzana Majeed, who was also sitting at the dais, he said one could imagine the plight of the family.

If these missing persons had belonged to Punjab, their fate might have been different, he said.

Talking about Qadeer Baloch who had been protesting for over three years, Hanif said it was the most dignified protest not only in Pakistan but in the world. He regretted that the media did not cover his protest because the Baloch activist was not a kind of person who would shed tears to gain publicity. "He has his own dignified way to express his feelings."

Prominent rights activist I A Rehman regretted that the taking up of the issue of Balochistan's missing persons by the Supreme Court did not bring about any improvement in the situation.

Farzana Majeed, whose brother has been missing for four years, said the media was not giving proper coverage to the plight of the missing Baloch people.

The moderator of the event, Mohammad Ali Talpur, observed that he had taken part in the Baloch resistance movement in the 1970s, but now he was too old to fight. He said he had adopted other ways of struggling like writing weekly columns on the Balochistan problem.