You are not powerless. Here is the law, in plain language.

The first 24 hours

What you do in the first hours shapes everything that follows. If you can do only a few things, do these.

• Write it all down now. The exact time you last saw or heard from the person, what they were wearing, where they were going, who was with them, and the names and contact numbers of any witnesses. Memory fades within days.
• Note any official contact. If police or any force came to your home or made a call, record the names, unit, vehicle numbers and what was said.
• Go to the police station nearest the place of the incident and ask to register a First Information Report (FIR). Take a written complaint with you (see below).
• Keep a paper trail. Note the date and time of every visit, who you spoke to, and what they told you. If they refuse to register the case, that refusal is itself important evidence.
• Do not confront or provoke anyone. Your safety and the detainee's safety come before everything.

If a relative has been disappeared

Enforced disappearance means detention by the state or by persons acting with state approval, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts. In practice, families experience it as a person being taken and then simply not being anywhere the law can reach.

Steps, in order

1. Register an FIR for kidnapping or abduction under the Pakistan Penal Code. This creates a criminal investigation with a paper trail. If the police refuse, see Getting an FIR registered.
2. File a complaint with the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED). It can issue "production orders" directing authorities to produce the detainee. Be aware that compliance with these orders has historically been very poor.
3. File a habeas corpus petition in the High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution, and/or under Section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). See below.
4. Document medical and financial harm. Loss of a breadwinner, medical conditions, missed exams, unpaid loans, all of it becomes relevant to any claim and to any future legal step.
5. Preserve everything. Keep copies in more than one place, and share them with a trusted person. Files disappear; clouds and relatives' phones do not.

Getting an FIR registered

An FIR is the formal record that starts a criminal investigation. Without one, there is no case number and no recognised paper trail.

Your route if a station refuses

• The officer in charge must record your complaint. Take it in writing, in the local language if you prefer, and ask for a copy or a receipt.
• Escalate to the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the district in writing, describing the refusal and the facts. Keep a copy.
• Apply to a magistrate. You can ask the magistrate to direct that the case be registered. A written application, with your earlier complaint attached, is usually enough to start.
• Use the courts and oversight bodies. If the refusal persists, a habeas corpus petition (below) or a complaint to the relevant ombudsman/commission can force the issue onto the record.

The key principle: a refusal to register is not the end of your case, it is a fact you should document and put before a higher authority.

Habeas corpus: the court's power to demand a person be produced

Habeas corpus is the ancient remedy that lets a court order someone holding a person to bring them before it and justify the detention. In Pakistan it flows from two places:

• Article 199 of the Constitution: the High Court may order that a person "in custody within the territorial jurisdiction of the Court be brought before it," to satisfy itself that the person is not being held without lawful authority or in an unlawful manner. It can be invoked by "any person," not only a relative.
• Section 491 of the CrPC: it empowers the High Court to direct that a person be produced and, if illegally or improperly detained, set at liberty. Since 2002, Sessions Judges and Additional Sessions Judges also have concurrent power under Section 491(1A), which means a family may be able to go to the Sessions Court first.

What the courts require

This is the part families find hardest. The courts have repeatedly held that habeas corpus is not a general "missing person locator" service. The essential requirement is a detention, a claim that the person is being held, at least a strong and credible suspicion of unlawful confinement, and, ideally, an identifiable detaining authority.

Landmark cases such as Province of Sindh v. Raeesa Farooq (1994 SCMR 1283) and Ali Gohar and Jamaluddin v. SSP Kamber set out the framework, including the remedies a court may grant, from issuing a rule to produce the detainee, to ordering an FIR against those responsible, to awarding compensation where unlawful detention is proved. But where a court finds only an ordinary missing-person situation with an ongoing police investigation, it will often say the remedy lies in the criminal process, not in a constitutional petition.

Custody, torture and unlawful treatment

Article 10 of the Constitution protects against torture for the purpose of extracting evidence, and Article 10-A guarantees a fair trial and due process. Detention without being produced before a magistrate within the time required by law is unlawful.

• Arrest must be lawful and recorded. Ask for the grounds of arrest and the authority. Insist the person be produced before a magistrate as required by law.
• Medical evidence matters. If you see the detainee and there are injuries, get a medical examination as soon as possible and have the injuries recorded by a doctor. Keep the report in a safe place.
• Complaints can be made independently. A custodial-torture or illegal-detention complaint can be filed with the police, the magistrate, the Human Rights Commission, or the provincial ombudsman, and raised in a bail or habeas proceeding.
• Enforced disappearance is still not a standalone crime in Pakistani law, and Pakistan is not party to the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances, which is exactly why documenting the facts for other forums (the courts, the UN Working Group, the press) matters.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance: safety, injury and compensation

In areas such as Kurram and parts of the border districts, landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to kill and maim civilians. If you live or travel in an affected area:

• Never touch, move or mark a suspected device. Keep people, children and animals away. Warn others in the community.
• Report the location through a trusted official or a human-rights organisation, with as precise a description as you can give.
• After an injury: get the patient to a hospital as fast as possible, keep every medical record, note the exact place and time of the blast, and photograph the scene only if it is safe.
• Press for the right FIR. Local representatives have publicly complained that FIRs for such blasts often omit the anti-terrorism provisions; ask that the case be registered with the appropriate sections.
• Claim what you are owed. Demand compensation and support for people left permanently disabled, and pursue it through the district administration and the courts if necessary. Read the Kurram landmine record for the documented pattern.

This page is general legal information and does not create a lawyer–client relationship. Names and wording of statutes should be confirmed with a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction as the law and its practice change over time.