Extrajudicial killings: Court tells govt to compensate families of MQM activists

In another case, Rangers lawyers granted more time to file comments.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has given the authorities three weeks to provide families of three activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement with financial compensation for their loved ones who were killed in an extrajudicial manner after they went ‘missing’.

A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, snubbed the authorities for failing to compensate the families despite an order to do so at the last hearing. Advocate Hasnain Shah Bukhari told the judges that the law enforcement agencies had picked up three men — Kashif Qayyum, Shaikh Arifullah and Muhammad Asif Shamil — from different areas of the city and had not disclosed their whereabouts.

The advocate alleged that days after their families filed petitions in the high court, their bodies were found in different parts of the provincial capital. Bukhari reminded the court that, on the last hearing, the judges had ordered the government to compensate the victims’ families but so far no action has been taken.

The judges expressed their displeasure over the conduct of officials and gave them three weeks to implement the court’s orders. They also called for a compliance report to be submitted by the next date of hearing.

Missing persons

The same bench granted more time to the Rangers legal adviser to submit comments on the whereabouts of a number of missing persons by March 5.

In their pleas, the petitioners alleged the police and Rangers officials of taking their loved ones away without disclosing further details.

On Thursday, Rangers legal adviser Habib Ahmed appeared in court and requested for time to file comments for all the cases. The judges ordered him to file details by March 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2015.