Financial troubles: State should help families of missing persons: SHC

Court holds all ministries concerned jointly responsible

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has held all the ministries concerned jointly responsible for looking after the families of the missing persons, particularly those who were the sole breadwinners of their families.

Under the constitution, it is the state’s responsibility to provide protection, shelter and the right to live [to its people] and now education has also been added as a [basic human] right, observed the division bench, exclusively constituted to hear and decide dozens of cases of missing persons allegedly picked up by law enforcement agencies.

Headed by the Sindh High Court chief justice, Mushir Alam, the bench was hearing a constitutional petition seeking the rehabilitation and financial aid for families and children of all those missing.

Citing the state through several secretaries as well as the Sindh chief secretary as respondents, Advocate Nisar A. Mujahid had stated in his petition that post 9/11, the US authorities had picked up a large number of Al Qaeda suspects with the consent of the governments of different countries.

“In Pakistan, while the matter was taken to court, neither the detainees were brought to the courts nor were their whereabouts disclosed,” he alleged. “The families of the missing persons were facing a financial crisis and they were isolated.”

Not only the children of such captives are mistreated by their schoolmates, the affected families also face financial constraints in getting their children married, as non-governmental and social welfare organisations have chosen not to offer them any assistance, the petitioner added.

He appealed to the court to direct the respondents to take immediate action to assist the families and the children of all the missing persons and submit what they plan to do about them.

After hearing the preliminary arguments, the court asked the Deputy Attorney General, Ashraf Mughal, and the Additional Advocate General, Meeran Muhammad Shah, to get information from the various provincial ministries responsible to provide social welfare. The respective Zakat and Baitul Maal funds can also be used to look after the families of such missing persons, the judges observed.

Directing Ashraf Mughal and the Sindh Advocate General, Abdul Fatah Malik, to ask for responses from the ministries concerned, the court ruled: “It is [the] joint responsibility of all respective ministries and those concerned to look after the families of such persons in a concerted and coordinated manner.”

The court adjourned the hearing for four weeks, while ordering that the federal and provincial law officers be sent a copy of the order. The case will be heard separately from the missing persons’ cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2012.