Police ordered to question Sanaullah about missing doctor

CJ ordered police to make the Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah join the investigation in missing doctor case.

LAHORE: Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain of the Lahore High Court on Thursday ordered the police to make the Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah join the investigation in the case of the missing doctor Ali Abdullah.

The judge issued this direction when Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, counsel for The Express Tribune reporter Abdul Manan, told the court that his client had joined the investigation on the court’s direction and questioned why the court had not included Sanaullah in the investigation as he had announced in the Punjab Assembly (PA) that Dr Abdullah was in the custody of secret agencies.

The judge directed superintendent of police (SP) Umar Virk to check the PA record to confirm if Sanaullah had made such a statement.

Virk said that the missing doctor was not in the custody of the police.

Model Town SP (Investigation) Abdul Rabb said that the investigation team had been unable to ascertain the location of the missing doctor.

Dr Sarfaraz had filed a petition seeking recovery of his missing son Dr Ali Abdullah. On being asked by the court about Sananullah’s statement, SP Rabb said that this had been reported in a section of the press.

The judge ordered the police to include Sanaullah in their investigation.

Previously, the Defence and Interior Ministries had informed the court that agencies working under their control had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Dr Abdullah.

The petitioner had submitted that his son, employed at Jinnah Hospital, had been abducted by personnel of secret agencies while on the way home from the hospital. He requested the court to issue directions to the federal and provincial governments to recover his son and produce him before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2010.