SHC dissatisfied with efforts to trace callers ringing missing persons’ families
It had asked police dept’s forensic and investigation divisions to coordinate better.
File photo of the Sindh High Court. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court (SHC) took serious note of the police’s “lukewarm efforts” to trace calls received by the families of missing persons.
While hearing dozens of pleas seeking the whereabouts of a number of people allegedly picked up by law enforcers, the high court had been passing orders, directing the police and cellular service companies to address problems faced in locating anonymous callers.
On May 9, the bench had ordered the police department’s law officer to take up the matter with the investigation and forensic divisions, asking them to coordinate better with each other to obtain information about all calls being received by relatives of the missing people.
The bench had also directed the officer to approach a cellular service company and seek records for a cellphone number from which calls were being made to the relatives of Irfanuddin, Samiullah and Shoukatullah. The three men were allegedly taken away from Mauripur by the police and Rangers personnel after arriving from Quetta in September 2012.
During the hearing of the case on Thursday, provincial law officer Miran Muhammad Shah told the court that all police officers concerned could not appear in court because they were attending a Supreme Court hearing on the same date.
Chief Justice Mushir Alam, who headed the bench, took serious notice of this response and warned that the court may substitute the law officer if he failed to provide the record of calls and submit a progress report by June 26.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2013.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) took serious note of the police’s “lukewarm efforts” to trace calls received by the families of missing persons.
While hearing dozens of pleas seeking the whereabouts of a number of people allegedly picked up by law enforcers, the high court had been passing orders, directing the police and cellular service companies to address problems faced in locating anonymous callers.
On May 9, the bench had ordered the police department’s law officer to take up the matter with the investigation and forensic divisions, asking them to coordinate better with each other to obtain information about all calls being received by relatives of the missing people.
The bench had also directed the officer to approach a cellular service company and seek records for a cellphone number from which calls were being made to the relatives of Irfanuddin, Samiullah and Shoukatullah. The three men were allegedly taken away from Mauripur by the police and Rangers personnel after arriving from Quetta in September 2012.
During the hearing of the case on Thursday, provincial law officer Miran Muhammad Shah told the court that all police officers concerned could not appear in court because they were attending a Supreme Court hearing on the same date.
Chief Justice Mushir Alam, who headed the bench, took serious notice of this response and warned that the court may substitute the law officer if he failed to provide the record of calls and submit a progress report by June 26.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2013.