Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court directed the provincial home secretary to convene another session of the Joint Investigation Team within 15 days to trace out a missing lawyer’s son.

A division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto gave this direction while hearing the petition filed by Advocate Abdul Sattar seeking recovery of his missing son.

Sattar submitted that his son, Noor Muhammad, was picked up by unidentified person from outside the city courts in April 2012 and since then his whereabouts were unknown.

He complained that the law enforcement agencies had failed to locate his son and pleaded the judges to order the Sindh police chief and other law enforcement agencies to establish the whereabouts of his missing son and produce him in the court.

Meanwhile, the same bench took notice of the failure of the DSP to make serious efforts for the recovery of a missing man and summoned the SSP East on the next hearing.

The court was hearing the petition filed by Abdul Latif Baloch who sought whereabouts of his cousin Muhammad Rafiq allegedly picked up by Rangers personnel from outside his house.

Meanwhile, a representative of the home dept submitted the minutes of Provincial Task Force (PTF)’s meeting to the bench held on November 16 to discuss the cases of missing persons referred to it by the high court and Commission of Inquiry Enforced Disappearance.

The judges were informed that the PTF headed by the provincial home secretary discussed over 50 cases of the missing men, out which three men, including Owais, Faraz Khan and Ghulam Murtaza were stated to have been traced out.

In a number of cases, the PTF issued directions to the convener of JIT meetings to convene another session within 15 days to ascertain the whereabouts of missing persons.

Mehfooz Yar Khan, who is representing the families of around 25 missing workers of MQM, told the PTF that the cases of missing MQM workers were old and there were little chances of their recovery. The families were not willing to take any compensation but they want the government to provide allowances on monthly basis to meet their basic needs, he added.

The PTF assured the families that it would not stop its efforts to trace out the missing workers and advised them to come up with their suggestions with regard to compensation.