KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday directed provincial authorities to set up borstal schools for abandoned and orphaned children at divisional level within two months.

A single-judge bench of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar observed that such facilities be established in every division of the province under the domain of social welfare department as provided under the Sindh Children Act, 1955.

The bench warned that if compliance was not made within stipulated period, contempt proceedings would be initiated against the secretary of social welfare department as well as against chief secretary of Sindh.

When the bench took up a matter regarding six girls recovered from a private shelter home by a magistrate after one of the inmates was allegedly killed, the deputy director of social welfare department Tahir Mehmood told the court that six girls had already been shifted to Darul Banat and out of them three had been returned to their parents.

Some of the parents were not cooperating as a girl had converted from Christianity to Islam and there was no mechanism to take care of minors, he said.

He said that apart from Karachi not a single place for minor girls had been available in other divisions of the province and in the metropolis too there was no such facility for minor boys.

The bench observed that the official’s statement was nothing but an admission of a problem that referred to relevant sections of the Children Act, 1955 dealing with rights of neglected and destitute children.

It said that fundamental rights could not be denied to such children and they were to be protected by the government not on paper alone but by discharging its obligations as provided in this act as well as in other relevant laws dealing with rights of children.

The bench also directed secretary of social welfare department to ask the officials concerned to extend cooperation to inquiry officer of Federal Investigation Agency.

On the directive of the bench, the FIA is investigating all orphanages and collecting data of past 10 years regarding marriages of inmates as well as adoption and deaths after a complaint of alleged forced marriages of inmates was brought before the bench.

Warrant for arrest of LG secretary

Another SHC bench on Monday issued warrant for the arrest of provincial secretary of local government over his continued absence and failure to file a compliance report.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar issued bailable warrant for a sum of Rs100,000 against the secretary directing him to appear in court on Oct 1.

The bench observed that in October last year, the secretary was directed to decide the appeal of the petitioner, an employee of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation seeking promotion, within three weeks and file compliance report. He failed in his duty and then he was granted another week but he did not file the compliance report.

Therefore, the bench summoned the secretary to appear in person along with compliance report, but he neither turned up nor filed the report, it added.

Meanwhile, the bench issued notices to provincial education authorities on a petition filed against reported appointments of two principals for Islamia Arts and Commerce College, Karachi.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020