News & analysis
A sourced, dated archive of the events that shaped the past year for the disappeared across Pakistan, from the PTM ban challenge and the Peshawar disappearances to the landmine emergency in Kurram. Every entry is linked to its original reporting.
Courts · PTM
An Islamabad court ordered the arrest of the PTM's founder after he failed to appear in a case tied to the 2023 Tarnol protest. His lawyers called it a routine procedural step.
Disappearances
The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances reported 10,636 cases received since 2011, and 1,650 still unresolved.
Disappearances
Hanif Pashteen and Noor Ullah Tareen were taken into custody in Peshawar on 12 November 2025. Their families are still waiting.
Courts · PTM
Petitioners argued the ban and the listing of leaders under anti-terrorism law breach the right to a fair trial and due process.
Accountability
At the Asma Jahangir Conference, the law minister said the number of missing persons had fallen to roughly 2,600, and that the correct figure should be zero.
Disappearances
When police refuse to even register a case, families lose the first legal foothold. Amnesty documented exactly that pattern.
Landmines
Blasts killed and maimed civilians through 2025 and 2026 while residents say the main highway stayed shut, forcing travel onto mined tracks.
Politics · KP
Pashteen warned against attempts to strip the province's elected authority, as arrests widened across the province.
Law · PTM
Section 11B lets the state proscribe an organisation by notification, with no charge and no trial. What that means for the PTM.
Accountability
The Commission says it has disposed of 8,986 cases. Families say a closed file is not an answer.
International law
Pakistan has not ratified the UN convention against enforced disappearance. What the treaty would change.
Rights · KP
When a region becomes a security category, its people become suspects. Profiling and the law that forbids collective punishment.
Courts
Closed proceedings, limited appeals. What fair trial means when a civilian is tried by the army.
Custody
The Maintenance of Public Order law can hold people for months without charge. How the 3MPO shortcut works.
Free speech
Platforms blocked, posts removed, threats by phone. How the record is pushed off the internet.
Families
The person who spends a decade searching is usually a woman. On the cost borne by families of the disappeared.
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