Police, DC fail to rescue children from brick kiln

IHC gives two-day time, orders arrest of factory owner

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) and police failed to recover 10 children trapped in bonded labour at a brick kiln despite court orders.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah expressed displeasure with ICTA and police for not recovering the children, some aged only eight years, from the clutches of a brick factory owner who has kept them as collateral against cash advances paid to their parents.

“If a child from a family of elite class goes missing, the whole state comes into action for search operations. Would you have acted with the same speed if, instead of a poor kiln worker, a child of interior secretary was missing,” Justice Minallah said.

The Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Thursday instructed to produce the children before court till Saturday, otherwise court would summon the chief commissioner and police chief to appear in person on next hearing.

During the course of proceeding, the station house officer (SHO) of the relevant police station adopted the stance that the police had raided the concerned bricks' factory but they did not find the children there.

The chief justice remarked that the police were admitting the disappearance of children but it did not even bother to register a first information report (FIR) on the matter. If the police could not recover the children then the police chief of the federal capital would appear in person before the court, he said.

Justice Minallah observed that the response of state institutions was not the same if the children of any elite family went missing. If a child of an elite family disappeared then the whole state got engage in his recovery, he said.

The bench further said that the poor woman standing before court, she is among those people who did not even have access to courts.

The court directed the deputy commissioner ICT and police to ensure recovery of the children till Saturday and produced them before the court.

IMC case

IHC on Thursday sought comments from Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) in a case challenging the cancellation of doctor's licence on basis of negligence.

IHC's Justice Baber Sattar conducted hearing on a petition filed by a doctor challenging cancellation of his licence.

PMC had cancelled the licence of the surgeon for causing the death of a woman due to his negligence during a surgery.

The court asked the regulatory body of the medical professional to give its input on the status of the medical tribunal which would hear the surgeon’s appeal.

The petitioner's lawyer Binyamin Abbasi Advocate contended that his client licence had been cancelled for a period of two year on charges of committing negligence during an operation.

He said that medical tribunal was not functional where the appeal could be lodged against the decision of PMC.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2021.