Supreme Court seeks details of security plan, if any, for judges

After authorities failed to recover Owais Ali Shah, SHCBA sought security for judges, family members

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) directed on Wednesday the federal and provincial authorities to submit details of a plan, if any, regarding the security of judges and their family members.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, was hearing a suo motu case and a petition regarding security of the courts, judges and their family members in the wake of last year's kidnapping of the son of the then SHC CJ, Sajjad Ali Shah.

Then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, had taken notice of the failure of the provincial authorities and law enforcement agencies in recovering Advocate Owais Ali Shah, who was kidnapped in broad daylight outside a shopping mall in Karachi by unidentified men in plainclothes.



Taking suo motu notice over failure of the authorities to recover him after the passage of a month, the SC had reprimanded the Karachi police authorities for their lukewarm response to the kidnapping despite having received timely information.

After the suo motu proceedings, the abductee was rescued in an army operation from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in July, 2016.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) had also filed a petition seeking directions for the federal and provincial authorities and law enforcement agencies to ensure fool-proof security to judges and their family members.

On Wednesday, however, the judges found that comments were not filed by the interior secretary, the provincial home secretary, Sindh IG and Rangers DG despite the lapse of almost a year.



Therefore, the bench directed the deputy attorney-general and Sindh advocate-general to submit plans, if any, devised by the federal and provincial governments for provision of security to courts, judges and their families. A month’s time was given to do so.

Meanwhile, the bench also sought suggestions from the SHCBA.