—Court orders police to submit progress report by November 15
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of progress in recovery of missing children and ordered the police to submit a progress report in the case by November 15.
A two-member bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, was hearing a case regarding more than 20 missing children.
The bench expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of progress in the case at the onset of the hearing. “Proper work for the recovery of missing children was not being done,” the bench observed.
The court was informed by Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Amin Yousufzai that prior to a previous hearing of the case, two missing children had been found.
“Two children— Sajid from Faisalabad and Farwa from Karachi’s Korangi— were recovered after advertisements were placed in Sindhi, Urdu and English newspapers,” he told the court.
Yousufzai said that a team led by him, formed by the Sindh inspector general, is in contact with the police of other provinces regarding the recovery of the missing children.
He said that since 2014, 129 children had been recovered.
During the proceedings, parents of a missing girl Saima from the Baldia area said that she had been missing for two years. “The police were not being cooperative,” the parents of missing children present in court said.
Ordering police to look into all its aspects, the bench said that the case of missing children was a dangerous issue.
“The police should work seriously for the recovery of the children and should use model devices in the process,” the bench remarked.
Yousafzai, while speaking to media after the proceedings, said that they were taking steps for the recovery of missing children. “We have contacted the police and Joint Protection Bureaus of all provinces,” he said.
“We are also in contact with the family members of the missing children,” he said.
In 2012, the court was moved the Roshni Research and Development Welfare seeking orders for the provincial police to consider the missing children’s cases, who went missing from different parts of Karachi, a cognizable offence, and register FIRs [first information report] in that regard.
The NGO had accused police of not properly investigating the cases of missing children which led to many avoidable deaths.