Sindh

SHC chief justice’s son goes missing in Karachi

Advocate Ovais Ali last seen in Karachi's Clifton area; police begin snap checking

Our Correspondent June 20, 2016

Advocate Ovais Ali Shah. PHOTO: FACEBOOK

KARACHI: The son of the chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC) mysteriously went missing outside a super store in an upscale neighbourhood of the metropolis on Monday amid fears he might have been kidnapped.

Advocate Ovais Ali Shah, the son of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was last seen at Agha’s Super Market in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) around noon, according to DIG South Munir Sheikh.

Advocate Ovais’s cellphone has been switched off since. DIG Sheikh said police were informed about the incident around 9:15pm and subsequently an investigation was launched.

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CCTV footage aired by Express News showed Advocate Ovais shopping in the super store. A team of police forensic experts obtained fingerprints from Advocate Ovais’s car parked outside the super store.

A TV channel quoted eyewitnesses as saying that when Advocate Ovais came out of the super store, four masked gunmen got down from a white-colour car bearing police registration number and intercepted him. Initially, Advocate Ovais put up resistance, but then they overpowered him and whisked him away.

Following the incident, police started snap checking in the city as well as at all its entry and exit points.

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Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad took notice of the incident. They directed the law enforcement agencies to use all available resources to recover Advocate Ovais.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal directed IGP Allah Dino Khowaja to recover Advocate Ovais at the earliest. Subsequently, the IGP visited the SHC chief justice’s residence and informed him about initial inquiry.

Advocate Ovais, a lawyer of the SHC, is a member of the Sindh Bar Council and the Sindh High Court Bar Association. A lawyer of original side, Advocate Ovais was currently pleading around 90 cases in the SHC.

SHCBA's president demanded that the government ensure early recovery of Advocate Ovais. "The lawyers’ community and the SHCBA urges the government to make all-out efforts to locate and recover Advocate Ovais," he added.

COMMENTS (18)

A J Khan | 7 years ago | Reply @Merwais Afghani: End of the day, it must be some Afghan Criminal gang who would be involved in it. PM son and Governors son were also abducted and recovered from Afghanistan. Afghan Refugees must be repatriated for peace in the country.

Last Man Alive | 7 years ago | Reply @muzammil ullah khan: Yes he is and his rulings speak loud and clear about that for example he blocked the construction of Bahria flyovers and underpass in Clifton for months causing daily hardships to thousands of people for months and most recently he has allowed the so called super store Imtiaz to remain open all the time to cause immense hardships to thousands of people. Wow talk about being upright in the typical sindh style.

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Last Man Alive | 7 years ago | Reply Money matters most probably

Gemini | 7 years ago | Reply Agha Super Market Doesn't Comes Under DHA Area, It's in Clifton Cantonment Area.

Whatacountry | 7 years ago | Reply The possibility of involvement of Karachi Police and CM Sindh can't be ruled out. They arranged a raid on this court and were punished! Remember?

Raisani | 7 years ago | Reply Seems like same masked gunmen who came to abduct Zulfiqar Mirza from High Court and now they got successful doing it outside High Court and giving a message to the CJS.

Salman | 7 years ago | Reply The SHC CJ is a thorough professional and an upright Judge with a no nonsense approach. May Allah make this time easy for him and his family and enable the quick recovery of his son.

Pakistan | 7 years ago | Reply Karachi is back in business. An incompetent Chief Minister is taking it back to pre Ranger operation period. Lawyers have once again proved their low character by boycotting courts. Does this mean that Judges are involved in the crime? The sooner this despicable class of psuedo lawyers is eliminated the better before people decide to do it themselves. Bar Councils are party to this nonsense. Our sympathies and prayers for early recovery of CJ's son.

junaid | 7 years ago | Reply @M.S. you idiot, a guy has been kidnapped and all you can talk about is conflict of interest. There are many counts within the high court but you wont know about it since you probably have never been there. Besides its not illegal so your complaining is pointless.

Motiwala | 7 years ago | Reply Qaim Shah took notice?. And directed the police to use all available resources. Don't they use "all available resources" when a commoner is kidnapped? Only in special cases? There is a Home Minister? His name is Sohail Anwar? Huh? He directed Allah Dino?, Inspector General Police? To recover victim at the earliest? Don't they try to recover all victims at the earliest? There is a IGP in Sindh? Since when? The last one was removed because he refused to sign the purchase order for 'USED, SECOND HAND Polish, armored police carriers' because his 'bhatta' was only 5%. He wanted a full 10%. [while an American company made a bid to sell BRAND NEW ones, much much cheaper, but refused to pay the bribes]

Parvez | 7 years ago | Reply I feel sorry for Mr. Sajjad Ali Shah and his family........

Tariq | 7 years ago | Reply It seems kidnapping some one has become so easy for the kidnappers. Snap checking by police is just to make money out of bike riders.

A.B | 7 years ago | Reply @M.S.: With all respect, conflict of interest occurs when there is a personal interest involved! I am sure the abducted has never argued a case in the SHC court room no. 1 (Court Room of the Chief Justice). Hence, if he has never argued in his father's court there is no conflict of interest and he is free to argue any case in any other lower and high courts (including SHC) of the country (as he has a high court license). But i guess in this country everything is amusing as long as it happens to someone else :)

Merwais Afghani | 7 years ago | Reply This is a normal activity in Pakistan now a days.

muzammil ullah khan | 7 years ago | Reply Justice Sajjad is one of the very few upright judges in Sindh today . He is the one who charged the then corrupt IG Sindh for contempt for raiding his court when Zulfiqar Mira was in his court . Justice Sajjad had to call the rangers to give protection to Zulfiqar Mirza. He is a bold and just judge and see how the Mafia tackles honest judges. Can we ever expect the judiciary to give verdicts against criminals in Pakistan ?!!

Faial | 7 years ago | Reply I wonder which cases the chief justice Sunday was ruling on these days.

M.S. | 7 years ago | Reply Isn't a conflict of interest that son is a lawyer of the same court where his father is a chief justice? Ugly truth always comes out at the time tragedy.

Dash | 7 years ago | Reply Obviously there will be a case in high court and someone wants decision in his favor.

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