UN panel not on fact-finding mission in Pak: Khar

Amid an uproar in Pakistan's political circles over a visit by a United Nation's Working Group on enforced disappearances, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday said the panel is not mandated to conduct any investigation or fact finding work.

"This group is mandated neither for fact-finding nor investigations," she said, while making a policy statement regarding the visit of the UN Working Group in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament.

"There should be no ambiguity about this visit. It has a clear mandate. Pakistan has also been the member of UN Council on Human Rights and presented two reports," she said.

The UN panel has visited over a dozen countries and 91 nations have extended standing invitations to the group, she said.

"The Working Group is visiting Pakistan on our invitation," Khar added. Pakistan has a mechanism in place to protect human rights. A commission on missing persons is investigating cases, the supreme court has taken suo motu notice of such issues and the government is sincere about protecting human rights, she said.

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances arrived in Pakistan last week on a 10-day visit. This is the panel's first visit to Pakistan and it will travel to several parts of the country and meet officials, representatives of civil society organisations, relatives of disappeared persons and representatives of UN agencies.

The Working Group is represented by Olivier de Frouville and Osman El-Hajje. The independent experts are accompanied by members of the Secretariat of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN panel's visit has already triggered an angry reaction from some politicians.