SHC seeks reports from federal, Sindh govts on Haleem Adil’s cases

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed federal and provincial law officers to file comments with regard to registration of cases against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh.

The direction came on a petition of Sheikh who sought details of cases registered against him at different police stations of the province. The petitioner submitted that he had been victimised by the former Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government due to his political affiliation with the PTI and a number of cases had been registered against him to curb his political activities.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that Sheikh was being arrested in one case after the other and requested the high court to direct the police and other law enforcement agencies to submit details of pending cases against him.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Naimatullah Phullpoto observed that the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and others were directed to submit details of cases against the petitioner, but no response had been submitted before the court since December 6, 2022.

Federal and provincial law officers sought time to file comments on behalf of ACE and others. The SHC directed the federal and provincial law officers to file comments on behalf of ACE and the Federal Investigation Agency with regard to registration of cases against the PTI leader.

The bench warned that the respondents shall have to appear before court on the next date of hearing in case they did not comply with the court direction.

Missing persons

The SHC expressed dissatisfaction at the progress report of investigation officers in missing persons cases and directed the heads of provincial task force (PTF) and joint investigation teams (JIT) to repeat the sessions for recovery of missing persons.

During hearing of petitions for the recovery of missing persons who were allegedly picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies from different parts of the city, the federal interior and defence ministries filed comments mentioning that the missing persons were not detained or kept by any agency working under their control.

The high court was informed by a provincial law officer that compensation had been paid to three families of missing persons and undertook that compensation would be given to the families of the remaining missing persons. The SHC directed the heads of JITs and PTF to continue their sessions for the recovery of missing persons.