SHC quashes abduction case after learning girl flew to UK herself

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has quashed a criminal case regarding the alleged kidnapping of a girl from Clifton after it has been revealed that she left Pakistan herself and is now living with her mother in the UK.

The order came on the petition of Dewan Abdullah Ahmed Farooqui, who had moved the court against the disappearance of his daughter from the Dolmen Mall area on February 19. The investigating officer of the Boat Basin police station filed the progress report, according to which the police had found that the girl was seen entering the shopping mall in her school uniform and then being driven in a white jeep to the Karachi airport the same day.

The IO said the girl had flown out of the country on February 19 on her temporary passport issued by the British Deputy High Commission on February 10. The officer said the petitioner has four daughters, including the girl in question, with his first wife, who has been living in the UK after the couple’s divorce.

The petitioner had told the police that the girl was going to attain the age of majority on March 1, and that she had been in contact with her mother for two or three months. He suspected that she had flown to the UK without his permission or any intimation.

After going through the IO’s report, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha said the girl was no longer missing, was apparently living in the UK with her biological mother of her own free will and was 18 years of age. The bench said that since the girl is no longer a missing person and she has not been kidnapped, the FIR registered at the Boat Basin police station is hereby quashed.

Criticism

In another case of allegedly enforced disappearance, the court took exception to the police not being able to gather the financial details of a man missing for over four years.

Hearing the petition of Shamim Ara against the allegedly enforced disappearance of Syed Arif Hussain, who has been missing since January 22, 2017, the bench said that despite the person missing for over four years, the police have still not been able to check the last activity of his bank accounts.

The court said the reply submitted by the police is completely unacceptable because it clearly shows that the Sindh police chief has probably not even bothered to read the report before countersigning it.

The court also said that a police officer of such a high rank and experience should be aware that it is not a difficult task to gather the account details of the missing person and check its last activity in four years.

The bench directed the IGP to appear in person and explain why such reports, which can be regarded at best as typical, are countersigned by him and submitted in court. The bench also directed the police chief to submit a detailed report, including the progress made and action taken as regards recovering the missing person.

The court also took exception to the non-compliance of court orders by the Ministry of Interior with regard to the collection of reports from internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The bench said that it appears that that interior secretary is least interested in complying with the court’s order despite the federal government expressing great concern over missing persons.

The court directed the interior ministry to file a list of the persons kept in the internment centres, saying that in if such documents are not filed, the interior secretary will have to appear in person so that an appropriate order may be passed against him.