Police violated constitution by failing to recover missing person: SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday took exception to the law enforcement agencies’ (LEAs) failure to recover missing persons for several years and remarked that it seemed that the LEAs had no interest in protecting the life and liberty of the citizens.

Hearing petitions against the disappearance of several citizens, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Nazar Akbar observed that police investigation officers had done nothing to recover the missing persons and filed stereotype reports on every hearing of the case.

The high court observed that police had violated the Article 4 of the Constitution, which provided protection of life and liberty of citizens, with impunity in the disappearance case of Mohammad Shafique who was missing since January 10, 2015 from the Manghopir area.

The bench observed that when the police came to know that somebody was missing, they were unable to find him by the simplest method through the use of the mobile phone call data record of the missing person. The court observed that although police had informed the missing person’s relative that the location of detainee was found near the Rangers headquarter, no action was taken to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing person.

The SHC observed that police investigation officers had failed to satisfy the court as to why the police had not been able to obtain the mobile phone location data of missing persons despite a lapse of five years. The court observed that police and investigation agencies were not taking interest in protecting the life and liberty of the citizens and they prima facie violated the Article 4 of the Constitution.

The high court directed the DSP concerned to produce the missing person within 10 days and show his conduct of investigation. The bench observed that in case of non-compliance, the court would recommend a disciplinary action against the officers, in accordance with the law.

Meanwhile, the Sindh inspector general of police submitted a progress report with regard to the recovery of missing persons before the court. The high court was informed that as many as 605 cases of missing persons were pending before the Sindh police while 3,609 such persons had been traced by the police since 2011.

The police chief mentioned that 570 cases of missing persons were pending in different districts of Karachi and efforts were being taken to trace them.