Court seeks replies over side mirrors for motorcycles

Petitioner challenges exemption, says lack of mirrors leads to scores of accidents

The Sindh High Court issued notices on Wednesday to the provincial government, traffic DIG and other relevant authorities over a plea challenging the exemption of motorcyclists from using side mirrors.

The petitioner's counsel stated before a two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, that motorcyclists had been exempted from using side mirrors through legislation passed in 1969.

With the use of helmets compulsory now, motorcyclists are unable to see vehicles behind and besides them, argued the counsel. He contended that this leads to hundreds of road accidents every day costing lives.

The counsel argued that by not using side mirrors, motorcyclists risked their own lives as well as others. He prayed the court to nullify the law exempting motorcyclists from side mirrors and asked for action against motorcycles without side mirrors instead.

The court issued notices to the relevant authorities seeking their replies on the matter.

Records sought

Meanwhile, over a plea challenging a death sentence awarded by a military court, the SHC sought records of the Safoora bus attack case from Judge Advocate-General Branch V Corps (JAG).

The court was hearing the plea challenging the sentence awarded to Ali Rehman when he was convicted by a military court.

The JAG branch legal representative maintained before the court that the several cases against military courts' verdicts currently under trial in SHC are separate from this case.

The court gave the JAG branch four months to submit records of the Safoora case and sought an explanation on how this case was different from the ongoing cases in SHC against verdicts of military courts.

Gunmen had shot dead as many as 45 members of the Ismaili community in an attack on a community bus in Safoora Goth in May 2015. A military court later handed a death sentence to Rehman.

Missing persons

Separately, hearing the pleas seeking the recovery of labourer Sarfaraz and 10 other missing persons, the court sought a progress report from the police on the recovery of missing persons yet again.

The wife of missing Abdullah told the court that it had been three years since her husband went missing and there had been no sign of his whereabouts.

Another person, Saeed Arif, had been missing since 2017, said the counsel representing Arif's family, adding that his clients had been visiting the courts for his recovery every month since his disappearance.

The family of a third missing person, Sarfaraz, told the court that Sarfaraz was a labourer with no enmities or disputes. He went missing from Khairpur Nathan Shah in 2019, they said.

The court directed the relevant authorities to form a joint investigation team for Sarfaraz's recovery and sought a progress report from the police after the recovery of all missing persons at the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2020.