SHC annoyed at police performance in missing persons cases

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday expressed anger over police performance in the recovery of missing persons.

A two-member bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Naimtullah Phulapoto, heard petitions for recovery of missing persons including Omar Siddiqui, father of 10 children. The court observed that police officers are not working. “Only paperwork is completed as the result is zero,” the court remarked.

The families of the missing persons were also in the courtroom. The wife of missing citizen Omar Siddiqui stated before the court that her husband had been missing for three years. A Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) has been made, but it could not trace her husband.

She stated that the future of their children had been ruined as they could not study. She pleaded with the court that her husband should be rescued as her husband's mother is also seriously ill.

The lawyer of another family argued that Saad Siddiqui had been missing since 2015 and 10 JITs had also been formed. “JITs are formed, Provincial Task Force (PTF) meetings are also held but the missing citizend is not known,” the court remarked.

The court ordered that PTF heads must take the cases of missing persons seriously; otherwise, they will be sent to jail. The court also ordered the Home Secretary to review the case of missing citizens and sought details of detention centers in all the provinces from the secretary of interior department. The court also ordered to send a copy of the order to the Chief Secretary Sindh and sought a progress report on the missing persons in the next hearing.