Missing IT engineer: Shalimar police officials reprimanded for delaying FIR

IHC again orders IGP to submit report of joint investigation team

ISLAMABAD: Police officials, including the SHO of Shalimar station and an investigation officer, have been reprimanded for failing to register an FIR of a missing man on time.

This was stated in a compliance report of the Inspector General of Islamabad Police which had been submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) recently.

The IHC has been hearing the case of Sajid Mehmood, a software engineer who had been picked up by armed men from his home in F-10 in March. His wife, Mahera Sajid, who is also a witness to the enforced disappearance had filed a case in IHC for the recovery of her husband.

Submitting his compliance report, the IG said that show-cause notices had been issued to the then SHO Inspector Qaiser Gilani and the then investigation officer ASI Manzoor Ahmed.

In the report, IGP said that in a verbal inquiry “neither the then-SHO nor the investigation officer offered any plausible justification in their defence.”

Both the officials have been charged with misconduct, unsatisfactory performance, dereliction of duty,  mala fide intention and lack of interest in discharging their official duties, the IGP said.

“Due to your negligence, carelessness and indifferent attitude towards official duties, the department had to face embarrassment before the court,” the show-cause notices read.

The SHO and the investigator have seven days to reply to the notice.

Reviewing the report, Justice Athar Minallah of the IHC on Friday pointed out that the capital’s top cop had failed to submit a report of the joint investigation team (JIT) which has been probing the case, despite the fact that the court had ordered the officer at the last hearing of the case to submit the report.

During the hearing, the court again directed the IGP to present the JIT’s interim report before the next hearing.

On March 15, Mahera had submitted a written application in the Shalimar police station to register an FIR over the abduction of her husband. But the police waited four months before finally registering the report on July 14.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2016.