The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered police and other agencies to submit their progress report within three weeks while hearing a petition seeking monetary compensation for the enforced disappearance of 12 people.
Appearing before a two-member SHC bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, the Additional Advocate General Sindh submitted on Wednesday that Rs.500,000 each has been paid in compensation to the families of the missing persons.
He clarified that the compensation amount has been paid to the families of those whose enforced disappearance has been proved after the approval of the Provincial Chief Minister. They are 12 in number, he added.
"It is unfortunate that police and other agencies have failed to trace the missing persons," Justice Phulpoto remarked. "The Sindh Chief Minister will decide the compensation amount," he further remarked. "Police have been repeatedly asked to recover the missing persons at all costs."
During the hearing, some women broke down in the courtroom, saying that they have been fighting a legal battle for the recovery of their husbands for the past 10 years. "We are tired of begging to raise our children without a husband. The government should be ordered to pay us monthly compensation," one woman said sobbingly.
Justice Phulpoto remarked that he completely sympathized with the families of the missing persons.
"Do whatever it takes to find the missing persons and bring them to the court," the court ordered police and other agencies, directing them to submit a progress report within three weeks.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2023.
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