SHC issues bailable warrant for SBCA official over no-show

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued bailable warrants of the Sindh Building Control Authority Gulshan Town director for not appearing before the court in a case pertaining to an unauthorised construction.

The high court was hearing on Thursday a petition of Azhar Kazmi and other residents of a residential building in Gulistan-e-Jauhar against unauthorised construction on the parking area of the building.

The petitioners had submitted that a private builder had encroached upon the parking area of the building and sold it. They submitted that the respondents were selling out the parking area constructed in the basement and depriving the petitioners from their right of parking their vehicles.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan observed that the SBCA official did not appear before the court despite court notices. The high court issued bailable warrants of the SBCA Gulshan Town director so that he could appear in person on the next date of hearing.

The bench also directed the SBCA director general to appear in person and explain why officials of the SBCA did not appear before the court when they were specifically called.

Missing children

The SHC on Thursday directed the Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) DIG to submit a detailed progress report with regard to the recovery of 12 children who went missing from different parts of Karachi.

Hearing a petition of a non-government organisation (NGO) against the disappearance of children from different parts of the city, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto observed that the cases of the disappearance of children were pending since 2012 and it appeared that the investigation agencies had completed only formalities in the matter.

The investigation SSP submitted that the cases of missing children were discussed separately in the provincial task force and report from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was still awaited.

The bench directed the FIA director to appear with a comprehensive report. The high court directed the provincial task force and joint investigation teams to repeat their sessions for the recovery of the missing children and submit a compliance report on November 24.

The SHC had earlier been informed that steps were being taken for the recovery of the remaining 12 missing children through modern techniques. The bench observed that 12 children were still missing and directed the police to take all the measures to recover the children as soon as possible.

The petitioner, Roshni Helpline Trust, had approached the high court for directives to the police that the missing children’s cases be considered a cognisable offence and investigations for them be initiated without any delay.

A counsel for the petitioner had submitted that the whereabouts of 12 children were still unknown and requested the high court to direct the police to recover them. The petitioner said the cases of the missing children were not properly investigated and as a result, many children had lost their lives.

The petitioner claimed that it had collected data regarding the missing children, which showed that around 5,000 to 6,000 children went missing every year, but due to deliberate negligence on the part of the police, many children could not be traced and were left at the mercy of the kidnappers.