KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the inspector general of police and Sindh prosecutor general to appear in person before the bench on March 17 and explain as to why their respective departments continue to defy court’s orders.

The SHC took exception over the absence of investigating officers (IOs) and SHOs as well as inability of the office of the prosecutor general (PG) to assist the court in most of the cases and lack of coordination between both departments.

While hearing a bail application, a single-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial said that it had been issuing directives to the IOs and in some cases SHOs, but they had not been complying with such directions and remained absent and as a consequence, the PG office was unable to assist the court.

It observed that in most of the cases, the prosecution was unable to inform the court of the facts of the case causing more delay in disposal of cases.

Bench irked by lack of coordination between IOs and prosecutor

“Further, either the victim of an offence or the person accused of an offence suffers. It appears to me that the leniency of this court is being taken advantage of, by both, the prosecution and the Sindh Police,” it added.

The bench in its order also noted: “In the last few days, several cases have come up where apathy on part of police had been more pronounced as even after several dates having been given to the prosecution to procure their attendance, the prosecution claimed that despite repeated reminders and letters to the police, the officers concerned were not turning up.”

It noted that when SHOs were directed to appear in court they sent additional SHOs and in some cases head constables.

The bench said that the police were directly filing reports in court without submitting the same to the prosecution department first and thus a prosecutor could not appraise the court of the contents while the police officers brining such reports had rarely a clue as to what was written in them.

In the case in hand, it noted that after repeated absence and inaction of Pirabad SHO coupled with prosecution’s failure to ensure his attendance, a non-bailable warrant was issued through the SSP concerned earlier, but the warrant was not executed and the SSP was directed to appear, but he too decided to turn a deaf ear to the court orders.

“Sufficient judicial restraint has been shown by the Court. I am compelled now to issue notice to the Inspector General of Police Sindh as well as the Prosecutor General Sindh to be present in person to explain their respective inaction as well as the reasons for the continuing defiance of Court orders,” it added

Adjourning the hearing till March 17, the bench also issued a show-cause notice to Inspector Badar-ul-Islam to initiate contempt proceedings against him for his failure to execute the non-bailable warrant.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2023