SC orders action against brick kiln owner

ISLAMABAD: “Justice at one’s doorstep means that the concerned institutions provide justice to people at their place, not that the courts fix benches for hearing at their doorstep,” remarked Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday during the hearing of a suo motu case regarding a brick kiln worker.

Muhammad Inayat, a brick kiln worker from Mandi Bahauddin, appeared with his family before the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Inayat told the bench that he owed Rs290,000 to the owner of the brick kiln where he worked and the owner peddled influence to get Inayat imprisoned. “While I was in jail, the owner kept my family in illegal confinement for several months and made them work for free.”

Inayat said that the kiln owner forced them into such a situation that Inayat, his wife and his 14-year-old son were forced to sell their kidneys in order to repay the loan.

Soon after, additional Advocate General Punjab Khadim Hussain Qaiser who appeared on court notice along with DSP Phalya Ghulam Mustafa Gillani submitted the Mandi Bahauddin DPO’s investigation report. The report claimed that the family was living happily in the area and had no problems. The report also stated that the three were never kept in illegal confinement.

Rejecting the report, the court asked the DSP to justify why he shouldn’t be suspended since his lack of awareness about the incident demonstrated his incompetence.

Issuing directions to the Inspector General Punjab to take action against the kiln owner as well as the police officials who imprisoned Inayat and failed to provide security to him and his family, the chief justice adjourned the hearing till July 30.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2010.