KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the secretaries of ministries of interior and defence to collect fresh reports from internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in cases of missing persons.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto also summoned the home secretary for not signing a report of the provincial task force (PTF) for missing persons.

It noted that petitioners were very disturbed as over dozen of sessions of joint investigation team (JIT) and PTF for missing persons had been held, but police were still clueless about the whereabouts of the persons who had gone missing several years ago.

When a set of petitions about missing persons came up for hearing, the police officers had sought time to collect fresh reports from internment centres located in the KP.

The bench directed the federal secretaries to collect reports about the missing persons Mohammad Saleem-ur-Rehman, Tahir Rehman, Mohammad Dilawar Khan and Mohammad Furqan Khan and produce the same at next hearing.

It also directed the provincial authorities concerned to repeat the JIT and PTF sessions before the next hearing and file progress reports.

Bench expresses regret over predicament of families of victims of enforced disappearances

In the matter of Pukhtoon Khan and his nephew Bilal, who had gone missing in 2012 in North Karachi, the bench noted that despite the passage of over 10 years, police could not trace out both the missing persons.

A representative of the home department informed the bench that a report of PTF’s meeting held on Jan 20 about two missing relatives was under preparation.

The bench noted: “It is very unfortunate that yet report is not prepared by the home secretary. Liberty of person is supreme which is guaranteed by the constitution and this court is under obligation to fulfil the constitutional obligations.”

It directed the home secretary to appear on March 7 and explain as to why report of PTF had not been prepared/signed.

The bench further directed the provincial home secretary to expedite the process to finalise PTF reports in other identical cases.

It also asked the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh to file a fresh report in one of such petitions till next hearing since the petitioner levelled allegations against the paramilitary force.

During the proceedings, the senior superintendent of police (Investigation-III Korangi) submitted that he had approached the ministries of defence and interior for collecting reports from internment centres in the case of Furqan, an employee of the Karachi Port Trust, about missing persons, but yet to receive any response.

The investigating officers in the progress reports submitted that 16 JIT and 14 PTF sessions had so far been conducted in the case of Saleem-ur-Rehman while the case of Furqan was discussed 17 and 14 times before the JIT and PTF, but their whereabouts had not been ascertained yet.

Justice Phulpoto deplored that the IOs were unable to collect reports from internment centres in the cases pending for past 10 years and the relatives of missing persons were very disturbed and disappointed as police were clueless about whereabouts of their loves ones.

The relatives of these missing persons had petitioned the SHC in 2015-16 and contended that the persons had been picked up by the personnel of law enforcement agencies from different parts of the city and pleaded for their recovery.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2023