Govt officials escape fines over missing man

IHC upholds decision to provide Rs0.1m monthly compensation to victim’s family

ISLAMABAD:

Senior officials of three ministries and departments escaped the heavy fines imposed on them by a court for failing to retrieve a resident of the federal capital who has been missing for nearly four years.

This was directed on Tuesday by a two-member, larger bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzaib, as they heard an appeal filed by the federal government over the disappearance of a computer professional, Sajid Mehmood.

A single-member bench of IHC had imposed a fine of Rs0.1 million each on former Islamabad Police Inspector General (IGP) Khalid Khattak, former defence secretary General (retd) Zameerul Hasan Shah, and the ex-Islamabad deputy commissioner (DC) Mushtaq.

The Kohsar police Station House Officer (SHO) Qaiser Niazi had been fined Rs0.3 million for failing to recover the missing citizen.

However, the divisional bench suspended the single bench's decision on the appeal filed by the federal government.

However, the court upheld the decision to pay Rs0.1 million every month as compensation to the victim’s wife, Maira Sajid, until the recovery of the missing person.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Additional Attorney General (AAG) Tariq Khokar pleaded with the court to link a similar appeal against the decision filed in a divisional bench. The bench referred the plea to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2020.