Govt to compensate missing person’s family
The interior ministry on Saturday assured the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that it will pay some Rs4.3 million arrears to the wife of a missing computer engineer.
The wife of the victim of forced disappearance had filed a plea for sustaining the monthly expenses of the family. The top court of the capital accepting the petition had directed the interior ministry to pay the family the amount the disappeared software engineer was providing for them.
Besides this, the single-member bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah was also assured Rs 103,000 every month to the victim’s
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah hearing the contempt of court plea pertaining to the forced disappearance of a computer programmer from Islamabad for the last five years on Saturday.
The investigation officer (IO) in the case was directed to submit the progress report of the case after every two weeks with the IHC registrar.
Maira Sajid’s counsel Umar Gillani appeared in the hearing to represent the petitioner while Hasnain Ibrahim Qazmi appeared before the bench to represent the interior ministry.
The report stated that Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar chaired a meeting on December 1, in which Islamabad Chief Commissioner Muhamad Mehmood also participated.
The participants agreed on the payment of outstanding compensation money and monthly expenses to the missing victim’s wife.
However, the court raised the question in its verdict that the Islamabad administration must ensure to pay money to the victim’s family.
The order further stated that the petitioner has the right to reopen the case she feels that the court orders are not being executed. The court expressed hope that the Islamabad chief commissioner would ensure payment of arrears and monthly payment to Maira within two months.
IO Inspector Arshad told that the efforts for recovering the citizen were underway while the court directed him to submit the case’s progress report with the IHC registrar every two weeks.
In an earlier hearing in September, the secretary of the federal interior ministry, the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and the chief of police in the federal capital were put on notice for contempt for not following court orders to provide compensation to the family of the missing person. The notices were issued Justice Minallah as he heard a contempt petition filed by the wife of software engineer Sajid Mehmood who had been abducted from his house in the bustling Sector F-10, in front of his family and neighbours in March 2016.
Ironically, after waiting for months hoping that the police, the agencies or the missing persons’ commission would provide some relief, petitioner Mahera Sajid — through her counsel Umer Gilani — filed a habeas corpus petition before the IHC seeking recovery of her husband in October 2016.
The interior ministry denied it had anything to do with the matter and said that FIA or federal capital police had not involvement in the disappearance of Sajid Mehmood. Despite passage of four years, the authorities have failed to produce any trace of the victim.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2020.