SHC irked by authorities’ failure to deport Indian citizen as per its 2017 order

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has taken exception to the authorities’ failure to deport an Indian national for several years despite court orders and observed that if the order was not complied with, the court would have no option but to summon the relevant secretary to explain as to how his department was actually working in such matters.

During hearing the appeal filed by Abdul Mughni against his conviction under the Foreigners Act, a single bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the appellant, who was an Indian national, had served out his sentence and under the impugned order of August 24, 2017, the prison superintendent was directed to make arrangements for his deportation through the home department.

The high court observed that the focal person of the home department had earlier stated that he had corresponded with the federal interior ministry on the issue but the interior ministry did not bother to reply him.

The SHC issued a notice to the interior ministry with a direction to send a person well versed with the facts of the case and explain why the appellant had not been deported yet.

A section officer of the interior ministry, Mohammad Saqib, submitted that the appellant had not been deported yet because of a certain procedural issue. The bench expressed concern over the conduct of the ministry of interior and observed that despite lapse of seven years, the ministry had not been able to confirm whether or not the appellant was an Indian national.

The SHC observed that prima facie such a delay was due to lack of efforts on part of the interior ministry. The high court inquired the section officer whether he was aware about the computerised national identity card system of Indian citizens like the one managed by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Pakistan. The section officer said he was not aware with regard to the national identification system of India.

The high court observed that since the deportation order of the appellant was not complied with, it had no other option except to call the interior ministry secretary in person to explain how the department was actually working in such matters.

The bench observed that it was expected that the secretary shall send an officer well-versed with the facts or file a compliance report through the deputy attorney general regarding the deportation of the appellant.