LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday gave 10 days to the federal and Punjab governments to recover two Pakistani families which went missing after they granted pardon to CIA contractor Raymond Davis on March 16 in exchange for blood money.
Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry expressed annoyance when a federal law officer sought three weeks to submit the reply on part of the federal government. The judge inquired, “Why is the government seeking adjournment after adjournment without any valid reason? Is it a complicated issue? The issue is so simple.
They are citizens of Pakistan and it is the responsibility of government to trace their whereabouts.” The judge rejected federal government’s plea of adjournment for three weeks, only giving it 10 days to trace the families. The court was hearing a petition by Malik Munsif Awan.
The petitioner said both families had gone missing after the release of Davis in the double murder case. He apprehended that somebody had kidnapped them and kept them in illegal detention. He submitted that according to the media, the families had a huge amount of Rs 200 million with them and their lives could be in danger.
He said that there were also apprehensions that they were forced to accept blood money for the release of Davis.
