Missing persons: PM, cabinet take notice of increasing incidents in capital, IHC told

ISLAMABAD: Additional Attorney General (AAG) on Monday informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the prime minister and his Cabinet has taken notice of the increasing incidents of missing persons in the federal Capital.

AAG Tariq Mehmood Khokhar informed a single bench of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani that missing person Abdul Quddus had been recovered and had reached home.

The bench in the last hearing had summoned Interior Minister Brig Ijaz Ahmad Shah (retd), but he did not appear before the court.

However, the secretary Interior was present in the court.

Justice Kayani observed that more than 50 cases of missing persons had been registered in the federal Capital.

He said that the issue of missing persons should be presented before the prime minister.

At this, the AAG told that the prime minister and his Cabinet had taken notice of the increasing cases of missing persons in Islamabad.

Justice Kayani asked him to inform the prime minister and Cabinet about the overall situation.

He added that if all this was happening in the federal Capital then what would be the situation in other parts of the country.

He remarked that courts themselves could not recover the missing persons, and they could only issue directives to the police.

He further said as per law the police could arrest people. It is deplorable that other institutions are also involved in arresting people, which is violation of the law, he added.

The IHC bench further said that it was the duty of the federal government to protect the basic human rights of the citizens, and it would be its misconduct, if another institution created hurdles in this protection of the rights of the people.

Later, the court disposed of the petition due to recovery of the missing person.

On the last hearing, Malik Naeem, the Superintendent of Police (SP) for Investigations heading the joint investigation team informed the court that a First Information Report (FIR) of Abdul Quddus's kidnapping had been registered at the Karachi Company Police Station on January 01, 2020.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020