The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notice to the federal interior secretary on Thursday and directed him to file comments on the whereabouts of five Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers, who have been missing since the military rule of President Ziaul Haq in 1981.
SHC Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi were hearing a constitutional petition filed by Hameed Shams, seeking the whereabouts of his brother and his friends. He cited the federal interior secretary, Sindh home secretary, Sindh IGP and the directors-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau as respondents.
The petitioner said that his brother, Malik Latif Ahmed and his friends, Sadiq Hussain Shah, Manzar Alam, Shabbir Brohi and Rahim Bux Wajpai, were PPP activists, who took part in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against military rule. They were taken into custody allegedly by law-enforcement agencies from Nazimabad, Jodia Bazaar and Lyari on July 25, 1981.
The issue was taken up by the Sindh government in 1988 and then again in 1994 but to no avail. On February 24, the SHC told the federal and provincial law officers to find out from the authorities where the five men are.
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Ashraf Mughal filed his comments, which the court took on record. No one was present on behalf of the petitioner. The judges said, however, that if the petitioner is not represented in the next hearing, the petition would be dismissed for want of prosecution.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2011.
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