Rule of law: Action ordered against SHO for not complying with court order

‘My sons were told not to seek secular education’.

LAHORE: Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Tariq Mehmood Zargham on Monday directed the Lahore CCPO to take action against the Naseerabad SHO for not acting on a court order on the petition of a woman seeking the recovery of her sons, who she said had been abducted by religious activists to send them to Afghanistan.

Petitioner Shagufta Almas submitted that some religious activists had abducted her sons Moeez, 16, and Tayyab, 14, to send them to Afghanistan.

On July 8, 2012, some people at an internet café had persuaded her sons to go for jihad to Afghanistan via Chaman, Almas said. She said she then contacted the Pakistan Army and managed to have her sons traced, but they had received jihadist training at Mansehra. Almas said that her sons stayed at the training camp for 35 days and were indoctrinated.

She said they were then told to go home but not to disclose details of the training to anyone. She said they were told to return home and to return to the camp three years later. They were also directed not to seek secular education. They could only study in a madarrasah.

Three months ago, Almas said, they were abducted by a criminal gang.

She said she had approached the Naseerabad SHO but he did not entertain her request. She then prayed the court to direct the SHO to register a case against the criminal gang and to recover her sons from them.

The court had directed the SHO to record the petitioner’s statement but the SHO did not. Almas then filed a compliance petition upon which the SHO did not submit his comments. The judge directed the CCPO to take departmental action against the SHO under Section 155-C of the Police Order 2002.

Section 155-C of the Police Order 2002

Penalty for certain types of misconduct by police officers:

Any police officer who is guilty of any wilful breach or neglect of any provision of law or of any rule or regulation or any order which he is bound to observe or obey;  shall, on conviction, for every such offence be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2013.