SHC gives police one week to trace missing constable

Questions why department terminated his services instead of searching for him

KARACHI:

The Sindh police have failed to trace a constable who has been missing for the past eight years. The Sindh High Court (SHC) gave one-week time to the Police Department on the request of Constable Mir Ahmed Khan's family to trace him and submit a response.

Appearing before a two-member SHC bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, the petitioner revealed that the Police Department had fired Constable Khan instead of searching for him.

Justice Kalhoro expressed his anger at the public prosecutor and police officials present in the courtroom and remarked: "It is time to send all of you to jail." He further remarked: "You could not find a missing constable of your own department for six years. Who will trace him?"

The public prosecutor submitted that the family of the missing constable has not given them any word on him. "You want to say that you do not know anything? Officers travel in Vigo SUVs, while people like constable Khan are pushed and shoved and then you fire him from job and take away his source of income," the judge remarked.

Pointing to the six-year-old son of constable Khan, the judge asked the family to send Abu Bakr to school instead of bringing him to the court. The bench ordered the police department to submit a satisfactory reply within one week; otherwise, a strict order would be issued in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2023.