Khairpur DPO, police officials summoned

KARACHI: The Khairpur DPO and other police officials have been called to court on August 19 to explain their ‘willful defiance of court orders’.

A division bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim summoned the officials on an application submitted by a petitioner, Shareefan, for initiating contempt proceedings against DPO Pir Muhammad Shah, DSP Hamza Ali Setho and ASI Qamarzaman Bhambhro for defying court orders.

The petitioner’s counsel Fayaz Ahmed Somar stated that SHC ordered the DPO of Khairpur on June 8, 2010 to conduct an impartial investigation into allegations implicating the petitioner and her family members in allegedly fake criminal cases. The court had also given orders not to arrest or harass the petitioner and her family. However, the police registered more FIRs against the family.

“We are clear that the FIRs have been registered by the Khairpur police to defeat the order of this court dated May 29, 2010,” said the SHC bench. It also said that one of the respondents in the case, a head constable at Setharja, was involved in two murder cases at Thari Mirwah but the constable had managed to escape charges with the help of the police.

The court directed the DPO to produce police papers for the two murder cases in which the head constable was named and his personal file, to be sent to the court by August 19.

It also issued notice to DPO Shah and others to appear in court and explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them. Notice was also issued to the Prosecutor General of Sindh to appear on August 19 to act as prosecutor.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2010.