KARACHI: Pakistan’s top judicial policy-making forum has set up a body to examine the issue of enforced disappearances, an official statement said on Friday, in a move to address one of the country’s most persistent human rights challenges.
The decision came during the 53rd meeting of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC), chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and attended by top judges of all high courts and the additional attorney general in Islamabad.
Enforced disappearances have long been a contentious issue in Pakistan, particularly in regions like Balochistan, where families of missing persons and human rights groups accuse state institutions of arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings.
Pakistani authorities have frequently rejected these claims as “baseless allegations.”
“The NJPMC took serious notice of the enforced disappearances and unanimously resolved that the judiciary would not compromise on its constitutional duty to safeguard fundamental rights,” said the statement circulated by the Supreme Court after the meeting.
“A dedicated committee was constituted to formulate an institutional response, after taking into consideration concerns of the Executive, to be communicated through the Attorney General for Pakistan,” it added.
The statement said the forum deliberated on “key policy issues and adopted several significant measures to improve judicial performance, technology integration in judicial processes and citizen-centric justice delivery.”
Successive Pakistani governments have promised to look into the issue of enforced disappearances in the country and even set up a commission in 2011 to trace missing persons and fix responsibility for any wrongdoing.
However, rights groups and activists say the issue continues to persist.
The top judicial forum also acknowledged the growing presence of artificial intelligence in legal systems during the meeting and initiated work on a framework for its responsible use.
“The ethical and policy implications of using generative AI in judicial functions were discussed,” the statement said, adding the National Judicial Automation Committee (NJAC) had been tasked to “finalize a comprehensive charter on ethical use of AI in this regard.”
While several judicial systems around the world — including in the United States and the European Union — have begun exploring AI for research and case management, concerns persist over transparency, bias, and the potential erosion of human judgment in legal decision-making.
