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Published : 02 Dec 2025, 12:11 AM
The government has published the gazette for the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance, 2025, which introduces provisions for the death penalty and life imprisonment for perpetrators of enforced disappearances.
The law also prescribes the same penalties for senior law enforcement officers or commanders who order or approve an act of enforced disappearance.
The law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry published the gazette for the ordinance on Monday.
It provides for the establishment of Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Tribunals at the district and divisional levels. Offences under this ordinance will be non-bailable.
The law states the whereabouts of arrested individuals may be kept confidential until their production before a magistrate “in the interest of state security”.
On Nov 6, the Advisory Council gave final approval to the draft of the ordinance, which includes provisions for establishing special tribunals and completing trials in 120 working days.
If any government employee or member of a law-enforcing agency arrests, detains, abducts, or otherwise deprives someone of their liberty and then denies the act, or conceals the person’s whereabouts, condition, or fate -- resulting in the individual being deprived of legal protection – such conduct will be considered an enforced disappearance and a punishable criminal offence, the ordinance said.
The offender will face life imprisonment or up to 10 years in prison.
If an enforced disappearance results in the death of a person, or if the person cannot be found alive or dead even after five years of disappearance, the responsible individual may face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The ordinance also states that anyone who destroys evidence of an enforced disappearance or builds, establishes, or uses a secret detention centre for the purpose of disappearance may be sentenced to seven years in prison.
It also includes provisions for punishing senior officers or commanders of law-enforcing agencies.
According to the ordinance, if a senior law enforcement officer, commander, or team leader orders, authorises, consents to, approves, or incites subordinates to commit such an offence, or participates in it themselves, they will be subject to the same punishment prescribed for the principal offence.
A senior officer may also be punished if subordinates engage in such acts due to the officer’s negligence or incompetence.
If subordinates commit the offence due to the failure to maintain discipline or supervise or control, the senior officer will be liable for the principal offence, the ordinance said.
The ordinance allows trials in the absence of a suspect if they are absconding. It contains a separate section on the use or transfer of the property of a disappeared person.
