KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday came down hard on police over poor investigation in cases of victims of enforced disappearance and directed the inspector general of police to recover one of the missing persons within 15 days.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, was hearing a set of identical petitions seeking recovery of missing persons. The investigating officers (IOs) of the cases filed progress reports, mainly submitting that there was no clue yet and sought more time.

One Mohammad Hussain had reportedly been picked up around four months ago by the police within the remit of the Arambagh police station and his brother petitioned the SHC in October.

The IO of the case, DSP Khushnood Javed filed a statement in court. However, the bench noted that the pictures attached with the petition showed that the alleged missing person was taken into custody by the police, but still there was no clue.

Bench gives SSP more time to recover missing candidate, his son

The bench said it appeared that the IO was in collusion with those who had taken away the alleged missing person. The court said that it was putting the IGP on notice as to why under his supervision a person had been taken away by police as evident from the pictures, and the law enforcers remained fail to recover or trace any clue of the missing person.

The court adjourned the hearing till Feb 20 and stated, “We are adjourning this matter to 15 days and in case, he [IO] remains fail to recover the missing person, IG Sindh shall be present before this court and explain his position.”

SSP gets more time in missing persons’ case

The same bench granted more time to the SSP-East for recovery of a former MPA and his son who had gone missing from their home around a month ago.

Petitioner Hassan Nisar submitted that his father, Nisar Panhwar, and brother, Mohsin Nisar, were picked up on the night of Jan 9 by law enforcement agencies in a raid at their home in Saadi Town and since then, their whereabouts were not known.

At the outset of the hearing, SSP Irfan Bahadur appeared in court and sought more time to look into the disappearance of both missing persons and produce them on the next hearing. Allowing the request of the SSP, the bench adjourned the hearing till Feb 21.

The former MPA and his son were also contesting the upcoming general elections from NA-231 (Malir-III) and PS-85 (Malir-II) as independent candidates backed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London.

To find your constituency and location of your polling booth, SMS your NIC number (no spaces) to 8300. Once you know your constituency, visit the ECP website here for candidates.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2024