Missing persons’ cases: Police official fined Rs10,000 for laxity

SHC expresses displeasure over police failure to show progress

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) expressed on Monday displeasure over the slow progress in recovery of missing persons and fined an investigation officer for failing to show considerable progress in a case.

"The efforts apparently being made by the police are not enough," remarked Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, head of the division bench exclusively hearing over 70 missing persons' cases.

Hearing a petition seeking the whereabouts of a missing citizen, Shahzeb Ali, the bench came down hard on the investigation officer (IO) for making no progress in the case. "The court has to repeatedly pass directives to constitute a Joint Investigation Team (JIT)," the bench observed, referring to different cases in which the provincial home secretary has been directed to form a JIT to probe into missing persons' cases.

While examining a progress report submitted by IO Ibadat Ali detailing efforts to recover Ali, the bench declared the report unsatisfactory and rejected it.

The judges imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on the police official for his failure to make any progress in the case despite a lapse of considerable time.

The court ordered the police high-ups to ensure that the FIRs regarding disappearance of citizens are registered at the police station under whose jurisdiction the person is reported missing.

The bench also ordered the IO to submit a progress report in the case by March 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.