Non-recovery of large number of abducted girls: LHC CJ expresses dissatisfaction over police performance

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelum on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over police performance for its failure to get recover a large number of abducted girls.

The Chief Justice was hearing a petition of Salma Bibi who had approached the court for recovery of her daughter abducted four years ago.

The Chief Justice emphasized that it is the fundamental responsibility of the police to recover the abducted girls, but the institution failed in performing its duty.

Earlier, The Inspector General of Punjab police submitted a five years data regarding abductions and recoveries of women.

According to the report, from 2021 to 2025, a total of 105,244 cases of abduction of women were registered and 3,258 women are still missing.

The report also said challans in 20,613 cases were submitted to the courts and currently, 3,864 cases are under investigation.

The Chief Justice when questioned why such a large number of girls had not been recovered, the IG responded that administrative issues were causing difficulties.

The Chief Justice expressed displeasure over this response and remarked that resolving administrative issues is the responsibility of the police and added any negligence in this regard is unacceptable.

She ordered to fix responsibility on officers who failed to recover abducted girls and also took action against them.

The court also directed that officers with poor performance should not be assigned investigation in further.

The court adjourned the proceedings for further hearing and sought a comprehensive report regarding the abduction cases on next hearing.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026