Daily Times

KARACHI: Police have shut their eyes regarding the problem of citizens going missing under their nose as the federally administered agencies take actions without taking the local police in the loop.

These observations were made by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Farooq Shah while hearing missing persons cases.

“We cannot shut our eyes to what intelligence agencies are allegedly doing with missing persons as legal proceedings are not being adopted before taking them into custody by the agencies,” noted the bench.

It went on to observe that any institution which is taking action as per its sweet will within the limits of any police station; police had also shut their eyes to the issue and remains hesitant in initiating action.

The judges noted that many petitions seeking whereabouts of missing men were pending since long but their recovery couldn’t be effected. “It needs not be reiterated that the issue of missing persons can be resolved if the central and provincial governments demonstrate seriousness towards the matter.”

The judges said, “We are not only judges but humans too and its difficult to witness the sufferings of affected families.” They added that the court is almost flooded with a large number of cases in respect of missing persons and invariably local police is found helpless before the federally administered agencies that don’t consider themselves answerable to police.

The court observed that all the agencies, whether federal or provincial, are obliged to respond and cooperate with police. If any information is sought, they are under obligation to respond, it said while adding that invariably, in all cases coming up before this court, it complained that none of the federally controlled law enforcement agencies cares or even bothers to respond.

The bench also expressed its displeasure over Joint Investigation Teams and Provincial Task Force (PTF) formed to locate missing persons, saying that they were unable to trace missing men even after several sittings. “Their performance in tracing missing persons is zero. The JITs and PTF were complete eyewash. This sort of performance reflects that no missing man will ever be recovered by them.”

It, therefore, directed the provincial authorities to remove incompetent officers from the JITs and PTF and appoint competent and capable officers so that the purpose of their formation could be served.

Meanwhile, the bench asked the DIG central to probe the case of a missing student of a private university.

The parents of Ali Raza, who was missing since April 6, 2014, had petitioned the high court seeking its directives for the LEAs to locate their missing son.

The court directed the SSP and DIG concerned to make hectic efforts for the recovery of the missing student since it was their prime responsibility to protect the citizens’ rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

While hearing another case, the bench expressed extreme displeasure over the failure of the police to trace out a missing man whose alleged missing brother was stated to have been killed an encounter.

Petitioner Syed Shah Feroze Ahmed Qadri told the judges that his two sons- Ijtaba Ahmed and Isbah Ahmed- were well educated and would deliver lectures at the University of Karachi. They both had gone missing in 2015 and since then there was no clue to their whereabouts.

The investigating officer told the court that Ijtaba Ahmed, one of alleged the missing petitioner’s sons, was killed in an encounter in February 2017 within the limits of Shah Latif police station. His dead body was handed over to the petitioner.

The court expressed serious concern over the killing of the petitioner’s son in the encounter and ordered the LEAs to recover another son before he is killed in an encounter.