Delays in custody transfer: Seven months on, 16 missing children yet to reach home

The children were recovered in Lahore last year in May but have yet to meet their parents.

KARACHI: Sixteen children, who were rescued from their kidnappers by the Punjab's Child Protection Bureau in Lahore, have yet to meet their parents as provincial authorities fail to transport them to Karachi months after the court's directives.

The court had ordered the reunion in May 2014, and the judges took serious exception to the fact that the home department and the police officials failed to implement their directives until now.

A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), headed by SHC chief justice Maqbool Baqar, ordered the home secretary, the chiefs of the Sindh police and Karachi police to personally look into the matter of bringing the children back to their homes from the government shelter-home.



Not only this, the bench also directed the home secretary to submit his report regarding the compliance of this order by February 27.

The children, who went missing from Karachi, were recovered and sheltered by the authorities in Lahore, where they have been living for the last seven months. A non-government organisation, Roshni Research and Development Welfare, had pleaded the court order the Sindh police to declare the cases of missing children as a cognisable offence and register FIRs.

During the last hearing, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee had written a letter to the SHC chief justice, requesting him to direct the provincial government to help them trace the families of the 16 missing children, who were under the supervision Child Protection Bureau, Lahore.

The NGO's counsel, Naveed Ahmed, said that the organisation has already approached the families of nine children. Taking up the matter on Tuesday, the two judges noted that neither any report on the last order's implementation was filed, nor was any official present to answer non-compliance.

They directed the home secretary, Sindh IG and Karachi AIG to personally look into the issue and implement the order. Meanwhile, the secretary was ordered to submit a compliance report by February 27.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.