The phenomenon of missing persons constitutes a persistent global challenge driven by armed conflict, irregular migration, organized crime, and individual choices. The International Committee of the Red Cross registers approximately 284,000 people as missing worldwide, a figure that rose nearly 70 percent between 2019 and 2024 and represents only a fraction of total cases. Comparable patterns appear in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of reports occur annually, in Mexico where registered disappearances exceed 100,000, and in conflict zones from Ukraine to parts of Africa and the Middle East. Pakistan’s experience fits this broader pattern rather than forming an exceptional case confined to any single province.