Justice Jawad S Khawaja of the Supreme Court, on Monday said, “There is no need for such incompetent police that cannot protect children of the poor.” The judge was sending a message to the chief minister in the case of the police’s failure in recovering an 18-year-old domestic maid.
The judge further said that the chief minister might want to follow in the steps of a great caliph who declared himself responsible if a dog died unattended. “Poor people are racing around looking for their missing children while the authorities are least concerned.” The judge asked a provincial law officer to convey his observations to the chief minister.
The two-member bench gave Model Town police a last chance to recover Sobia till the next hearing on March 20.
The bench was hearing the case of Sobia Ishaq, a maid who went missing from Shadman ten months ago.
Muhammad Ishaq, a resident of Nankana Sahib district, submitted that his daughter, Sobia, was employed at the house of Muhammad Attique.
In 2010, Ishaq asked Attique to give his daughter leave as he had arranged for her to be married but the employer refused, he said. Later, Ishaq was told that his daughter had been kidnapped. The police, he said, had failed to arrest anyone or recover his daughter.
Model Town SP (Investigation) Ijaz told the court that they were making their best efforts to recover the girl.
“Had the police extended sincere efforts, the girl would have been in the court by now,” Justice Khawaja said and admonished the SP for his poor excuses.
“Are the police not interested in recovering a girl because her father is poor?” Justice Khawaja said, adding that poverty was not a crime.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2012.
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