Federal LEAs bound to assist local police in probes: SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) expressed displeasure on Thursday over lack of cooperation of federal law enforcement agencies (LEAs) with the local police in tracing the whereabouts of missing persons, and said the federal LEAs were duty-bound to assist the local police in crimes committed in the province, reports Jamal Khurshid.

Hearing petitions against enforced disappearances, the SHC's division bench headed by Justice Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah said that several cases of missing persons were pending for the past several years, and that the court could empathise with the families whose loved ones were picked up allegedly by LEAs.

The bench observed that the issue of missing persons could be resolved if the federal and provincial governments demonstrated sincerity in solving the cases.

The SHC said the court was flooded with cases of missing persons, but the police were handicapped because they were not receiving any assistance from the federal LEAs.

The court said that apparently, the federal LEAs did not consider themselves answerable to the local police, adding that such a perception was unfounded and uncalled for, and that it could not be approved of or allowed.

The bench said the courts could not shut their eyes on the conduct of the intelligence agencies with regard to missing persons since legal proceedings were not being initiated against the people allegedly picked up by LEAs, adding that the police did not take action when some other institution operated in their jurisdiction.

The SHC also expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the joint investigation teams and the provincial task force, saying that their performance in tracing the whereabouts of the missing persons was nil, and that their constitution was nothing but eyewash.

The court directed the relevant DIG and SSP to make efforts to trace the whereabouts of two brothers, Mirza Saud Baig and Mirza Mehmood Baig, who had disappeared from the Karachi airport and Gulshan-e-Iqbal in April and September 2015.

The bench also directed the relevant DIG and SSP to ascertain the whereabouts of Ali Raza, a BBA student of a private university, who was missing since April 6, 2011 from DHA.

The SHC told the federal and provincial LEAs to submit comments on petitions against “illegal detention” of Waqar Rehman, Shafiqur Rehman, Hafiz Syed Nabeel Shahid and Nadeem Ali, who were allegedly picked up by law enforcers in raids conducted in North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Steel Town and others areas.