KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the police to file a final report about the investigation into recovery of 12 missing children till March 30.

A deputy inspector general of police (DIG) submitted a report on the behalf of the provincial police officer and contended that several steps had been taken to locate the remaining 12 missing children. The steps included writing letters to the other provinces, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other relevant agencies, he added.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said that since the investigation was still ongoing, the police should file a final report in this regard on the next date of hearing.

In the previous hearing, the SHC had expressed its dissatisfaction over a police report and directed the inspector general of Sindh to supervise the operation about the recovery of missing children and submit a report.

At the outset of the hearing on Thursday, the DIG CIA Mohammad Karim Khan submitted report on the behalf of the IG and stated that in the light of the last order, the IG held a meeting on Jan 24 to review and assess the progress made by SSPs and investigating officers for the recovery of the missing children and also issued necessary directives to locate the children as soon as possible by using available resources and techniques.

The report further contended that letters had been written to the FIA and IB to obtain travel history of missing children through CNIC of their parents and for surveillance of external members of families through phones of their respective parents.

The SSPs were also directed to meet the parents and visit the places of offences again while the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences had been requested to provide the DNA data of unclaimed bodies of children for cross-matching with their families, it maintained.

On a directive of the SHC, the police had registered 23 FIRs in 2017-18 regarding missing children at different police stations of the city and so far nine of them have returned to their homes. The police had claimed last year that a missing boy, Ayaz, had died after falling into a drain in 2018 whereas a missing girl, Asma, had not been kidnapped but, in fact, she had left her home and married to a man. She then disappeared on her own, they claimed.

The petition was filed in 2012 by a nongovernmental organisation seeking court’s directives to the provincial police for locating the missing children, who had gone missing in different parts of Karachi, registering FIRs and holding proper investigation.

MQM moves SHC

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Thursday filed a petition in SHC against alleged failure of the provincial authorities to maintain law and order in the city.

Impleading the Sindh chief minister, chief secretary and provincial police officer as respondents, the MQM-P deputy convener Kanwar Naveed Jameel contended that they had miserably failed to control crime in the province, particularly Karachi.

The petitioner argued that the respondents were liable to be removed from their positions, and pleaded for the setting up of a committee comprising judicial members under the supervision of the SHC to hold a probe against the respondents.

He also prayed for the formation of another committee to investigate the recruitment made by the IGP to control crime.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2022