A two-member bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered the police to submit a progress report regarding the recovery of missing children by November 15.

The bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, was hearing a case regarding more than 20 missing children. At the start of the hearing, the court expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of progress and said that proper work for the recovery of missing children was not being done.

Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Amin Yousufzai told the court that prior to a previous hearing of the case, two missing children had been found.

He said that advertisements had been placed in Sindhi, Urdu and English newspapers after which two children — Sajid from Faisalabad and Farwa from Karachi's Korangi — had been recovered.

Yousufzai told the court that a team under his leadership, formed by the Sindh inspector general, is in contact with the police of other provinces regarding the recovery of the missing children.

He said that since 2014, 129 children had been recovered.

During the hearing on Thursday, parents of a missing girl Saima from the Baldia area said that she had been missing for two years.

Parents of missing children present in court said that the police were not being cooperative.

The court told the police that the case of missing children was a dangerous issue and ordered them to look into all its aspects.

The judges added that the police should work seriously for the recovery of the children and should use model devices in the process.

Speaking to media after the hearing, Yousafzai said that they were taking steps for the recovery of missing children and had contacted the police and Joint Protection Bureaus of all provinces.

He added that they were also contacting the family members of the missing children.

A petition was filed by the Roshni Research and Development Welfare in 2012 seeking court orders for the provincial police to consider the missing children’s cases, who went missing from different parts of Karachi, a cognizable offence, and register FIRs in that regard.

The NGO alleged that cases of missing children were not properly investigated by the police which resulted in many avoidable deaths.