Comments sought on plea against dismissal of missing cop

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the provincial law officer to file comments on a petition against the dismissal of a missing police official.

Petitioner Shamim Begum said her husband Mir Ahmed Khan was employed in the police department and had been missing since 2015. She had submitted a petition about his disappearance that is pending in court, but instead of finding her husband, the police dismissed him from service.

She said her family has been moving from pillar to post because they have no source of income after the dismissal and the non-payment of the salary of her husband who has been missing for the past seven years.

The court directed the provincial law officer to reconsider the order with regard to the dismissal of service of the petitioner’s husband who had gone missing, as the authority concerned had dismissed him from service instead of finding him.

Fake ID cards

The SHC dismissed a bail application of three Afghan nationals in a human trafficking case. Applicants Jumma Khan, Mohammad Ibrahim and Abdul Wahab had been arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for possessing fake identity cards.

The applicants’ counsel said the bail applications of his clients had been denied twice and the trial court had not complied with the directions for the conclusion of the trial proceedings that were given at the time of the dismissal of the application.

A single SHC bench headed by Justice Omar Sial said that there appears to be sufficient evidence that on a tentative assessment shows the involvement of the applicants in the crime. The court said the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) had categorically stated that the accused were foreign nationals who were in possession of false citizenship papers, so it was not sufficient to admit them to bail.

The bench said that none of the applicants had sought any legal remedy for the declaration of their citizenship or that their documents were genuine and issued by Nadra. The court dismissed the bail application, but it also directed the trial court to conclude the trial within three months and submit a compliance report.