Islamabad High Court slaps Rs10m fine on secretaries, others

Holds state machinery responsible for failure to recover an abducted citizen

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has slapped a huge fine of Rs10million on relevant authorities over their failure to rescue a man kidnapped from Islamabad around six years ago.

The IHC judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani unveiled its 6-page written order while disposing of a petition filed by the brother of Ghulam Qadir, a man who was abducted on August 28, 2014 from the jurisdiction of Golra Police Station of Islamabad by half a dozen men in broad daylight.

The court noted that it is not satisfied with the working of the police department as well as the conduct of the secretaries of the Ministry of interior and the Ministry of Defence.

It said the secretaries are responsible both for the executive actions of their subordinates and their failures to perform their lawful duties. It noted that it was apparent in this case that the authorities failed to perform their duties and were liable for the consequences.

“Therefore the court declares secretary Ministry of Interior, secretary Ministry of Defence, SP (Investigation), In-charge JIT [joint investigation team], Golra Police Station SHO and IO [investigation officer] jointly responsible for their failure to provide due protection to Ghulam Qadir.”

The court held the state machinery responsible in the case and imposed a fine of Rs10 million on the above officials jointly and severally.

“The aforesaid officials are directed to recover Ghulam Qadir within a period of 30 days, failing which their cases will be placed before the competent authorities for initiation of departmental action under the relevant provisions of law,” order said.

The IHC had earlier imposed Rs2milllion fine each on defence and interior secretaries in Salman Farooqi case. In that case, the court had also ordered termination of the two secretaries as well as an IGP.