Court tells IGP to name then SP, IGP overseeing Shalimar police station. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Friday ordered the capital’s top cop to identify top law enforcement and administration officials when a citizen was abducted from the heart of the capital in broad daylight and they did nothing.
The top officials including the then inspector general of police (IGP), superintendent of police (SP), chief commissioner and the Interior Ministry secretary, landed in hot waters as Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed them to submit affidavits explaining why criminal proceedings may not be initiated against them for neglecting their duties in the case.
Moreover, Justice Minallah directed the station house officer of the Shalimar police station to personally visit these officials and serve them a copy of the court’s order, once they have been identified by the incumbent IGP of Islamabad.
The directions were issued as the IHC heard the case of the Missing software engineer, Sajid Mehmood, who had been abducted from his house in Sector F-10 in front of his family and neighbours in March 2016.
His wife Mahera, through her counsel Umer Gilani, had filed a writ petition of habeas corpus in the IHC. Over the past year, the court repeatedly directed the police and intelligence agencies to produce Mehmood in court. However, he remains missing.
When the case was taken up, again on Friday, the court asked Assistant Attorney General Khawaja Imtiaz about the negligence of police in registering an FIR and investigating Mehmood’s abduction.
The AAG admitted that “negligence had been committed” but assured the court that action had been taken against the concerned SHO, Inspector Qaisar Gilani.
Upon this, Justice Minallah retorted that a minor disciplinary penalty imposed upon the lowest officer was not sufficient and that an “example needs to be set” in order to prevent enforced disappearances.
He went on to ask the government lawyer “why should criminal proceeding not be initiated against the Superintendent Police overseeing Shalimar police station that day and also against the Inspector General of Police, Chief Commissioner and Interior Secretary?”
Justice Minallah further stated that “it is their blatant failure which led to the violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights. Why are these people still in service?”
Gilani told the court that a member of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had told the Missing Persons’ Commission last week that Mehmood’s case was indeed a case of enforced disappearance - reaffirming their earlier findings.
Justice Minallah observed that the issue will be examined further at the next hearing of the case.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the court directed that the IGP identify the then SP and IGP overseeing Shalimar police station as well as the chief commissioner and secretary interior. These officials were told to submit affidavits explaining why criminal proceedings may not be initiated against them by then.
Earlier, SP (Investigation) Islamabad Captain (retd) Muhammad Ilyas had submitted a report before the court which concluded that Mehmood appeared to be a victim of enforced disappearance.
The SP had asserted that the evidence, in this case, does not point in any other direction and that the case firmly falls into the category of enforced disappearance and reason for the opinion formed was “eyewitness accounts” and “no evidence to contrary”.
Besides safe recovery of her husband, Mahera has been demanding that the federal government be held liable for gross negligence in discharging its duty to protect the liberty of her husband.
As a consequence, she claimed, the government should be made to pay her and her daughters a monthly maintenance.
The court will now take up the case on October 20.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2017.
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