Islamabad High Court has said that secretaries of interior and finance will be summoned if the family of a missing IT expert was not paid compensation money as per court orders before the next hearing.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case related to the non-recovery of an Information Technology (IT) expert Sajid Mehmood.
He had ordered the federal government in 2018 to bear the monthly expenses of the family of Sajid Mehmood, who went missing in 2016.
Whereas in last September, IHC chief justice issued contempt of court notice to the interior secretary, the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and the chief of police in the federal capital for not following court orders to provide compensation to the family of Mehmood.
On Monday’s hearing, Hasnain Ibrahim, representing the interior secretary, said that the ministry did not have funds to hand out to the victim’s family.
The counsel added that they had written a letter to the finance secretary on October 13 and sought time from the court until it was answered.
The court approved the plea and directed the Inspector General Police (IGP) to submit a report on recovery efforts for the IT expert in the next hearing.
Further, the petitioner’s counsel said that the Islamabad police did not submit a single report in the last two years. At this, the chief justice remarked that he believes that the police did not read bother to read the verdict of the case as it concerned a common man.
“What would happen to the person if a verdict regarding him was mistreated in such a manner”, Minallah said.
He said that the police were not interested in the case as the victim was a common man, not a VIP.
The federal capital is for the elite, the court reiterated angrily and added that there really were two parallel states within a state, one for the elite and the other for the common people.
The court adjourned the case until November 16.
Law and order situation
IHC granted more time to the government to submit its report on the deteriorating law and order situation in the federal capital.
A single-member bench of IHC comprising IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided over the case pertaining to the rising crime rate in Islamabad on Monday.
During the hearing, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Syed Tayyab Shah appeared before the court and pleaded time to submit a detailed report on the matter. The plea was accepted by the court. Minallah directed the DAG to ensure that the report on the public interest issue was submitted in the proceeding on November 12.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2020.
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