EDITORIAL: One must believe it because it happened and conveyed to the Supreme Court by Sargodha police chief Dr Rizwan Ahmad Khan in so many words on Monday. During a hearing of a bail plea he did concede his inability to recover 18-year-old Sobia Batool, who was abducted on August 18, 2020, even when the suspected abductor is in police custody for quite some time.
However, the police officer took pride in informing the court that 151 other missing girls had been recovered. According to him, the police even raided a number of prostitution dens and recovered 21 women, of which 11 were sent to Darul Aman.
The court wanted to know: If that is the plight of law and order in just one district of Punjab then what is happening in other districts? It ordered the provincial police chief to come up with the whole truth as to how irrelevant has the police become to safe and secure life of ordinary Pakistanis. The bitter truth is that rule of law and security to the life and property of citizens exist only in government claims and the situation on the ground is bereft of these essentials.
Even prostitution dens thrive and do business as usual. The court did expect the Punjab police chief to step up measures to rescue the abducted girl from across Punjab as early as possible.
Will the police succeed in that? This question has no easy answer because we can only speculate — speculate because even when the alleged abductor of Sobia Batool is in police custody for such a long time her whereabouts remain a mystery for Dr Rizwan’s thousand-plus contingent? The fate of missing persons, good or bad, is no doubt a national issue and those who come onto the streets to seek their return indeed serve a great human cause.
But who speaks for the missing girls — apparently none. Who would believe that 151 girls went missing — kidnapped or abducted — in just one district and some were retrieved from evil dens. The court rightly observed that abduction of girls from such a small locality clearly displays abject failure and crass incompetence of police. Let us know the whole truth about this grossly inhuman and painful saga of missing girls.
Since law and order is a provincial government’s responsibility, Chief Minister Buzdar must come clean about it. And the Punjab police chief must make public the list of FIRs about missing girls. The message should go out that kidnapping girls is a crime duly punishable under the law as any other culpable offence. And that it is as prevalent as we know now courtesy Dr Rizwan’s disclosure. That’s a disturbing development and of serious concern to all.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022