Daily Times

Islamabad High Court Chief (IHC) Justice Athar Minallah Thursday said Pakistan’s prime minister should know what’s happening to ordinary citizens in Islamabad, a private TV channel reported.

During a hearing at the IHC over the alleged disappearance and subsequent recovery of additional joint director of SECP Sajid Gondal, Justice Minallah told an interior ministry representative to apprise the premier of what is going on in the federal capital.

During the hearing, Additional Attorney General Tariq Mehmood Khokhar presented a report on Gondal’s recovery to the IHC on the Centre’s behalf. “Sajid Gondal has been recovered and has returned to his home,” Khokhar told the court. “What had happened to Sajid Gondal? What has been ascertained,” the IHC’s top judge asked.

Noting that the credit went to Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking notice of the matter, Minallah asked, “Where is the copy of the decision of the federal cabinet? What has been done for ordinary citizens? What happened to the prosecution branch in Islamabad? Has it been established? Now that the missing citizen has returned, is the case over?”

The judge observed that no action was being taken for the protection of the ordinary citizens but that ‘everything is happening for the elite’. “The attitude of the police towards the common people is different,” he lamented.

Speaking of a spat between Additional Sessions Judge Jahangir Awan and the husband of Punjab lawmaker Abida Raja in Islamabad’s Red Zone, Minallah asked, “If the firing incident in the Red Zone had been committed by a common person, would the SHO [station house officer] have let him go?” “You know full well that there have been robberies in people’s homes in Sectors F-8 and F-10. The prime minister should know what is happening to ordinary citizens!” he added.