Karachi operation: Irate judges want officials to explain mechanism, again

Several petitioners had accused the law enforcers of illegally detaining their loved ones.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) once again summoned the incharge of the Karachi operation and the paramilitary force's law officers to appear in court to answer its queries about the mechanism of the targeted raids being conducted across the city.

A division bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, fixed August 29 for the appearance of the police and paramilitary force's officials at the joint request made by law officers, who represented both the law enforcement agencies.

The two judges were hearing various petitions seeking the release of several missing persons who were allegedly detained by the law enforcers.

The law enforcers are jointly engaged in targeted operations since September last year after a joint session of the federal and provincial cabinets, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had decided to rid the port city of targeted killings, illicit weapons, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, terrorism and drugs.

Over the last few months, however, a number of the citizens have filed petitions with the SHC, accusing the law enforcers of unlawfully detaining their relatives and not producing them before the courts of law.

Since June, the court has issued repeated directives to the provincial heads of both the law enforcement agencies, asking them to follow the law and explain the legality and mechanism of the targeted operation.

Irked by the repeated non-compliance of their directives, the judges had, on August 12, ordered the incharge of the Karachi operation to personally appear in the court to explain the legality and mechanism of the raids.

The situation was the same on Monday as no report on the mechanism was submitted to the court.

The lawyers, representing the police and Ranges, made a joint request for further time to comply with the court's order.

Allowing the plea, the bench summoned the Rangers law officer on August 29 with the relevant documents or notification to show that the paramilitary troops are not under statutory obligation to make an entry in the relevant police stations during the operations.

The bench also directed the Police Deputy Inspector General to submit the targeted operation's mechanism on behalf of the incharge of the operation by the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2014.