SHC dismisses false plea against illegal detention of two brothers

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition claiming two brothers were being illegally detained by personnel of law enforcement agencies after the court found the petitioner’s allegations to be false.

Ghulam Mustafa said in his petition that his brothers Ghulam Murtaza Bullo and Mohammad Ashraf Bullo had been taken into custody by personnel of law enforcement agencies, following which their whereabouts had remained unknown.

Mustafa said police and personnel of other law enforcement agencies had picked up his brothers from the Malir area on June 14. He expressed apprehension about their well-being.

Filing comments on the petition, the District Malir SSP said that the two brothers were former police constables who had been dismissed from service on misconduct and involvement in criminal activities.

He said that both brothers had a criminal record dating back to 1996, and that they had been nominated in several FIRs registered at different police

stations.

The officer said the petitioner’s brothers had neither been arrested nor detained by police or any other law enforcement agency, adding that their call data records show their mobile phones were being constantly used.

After hearing the counsel’s arguments and perusing the police report, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said that the possibility of the petitioner’s brothers disappearing on their own could not be ruled out as the petitioner’s allegations had been found to be false.

NA-240 by-poll

The SHC repeated its notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to file comments on a petition filed by the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) against harassment, violence and irregularities in the by-election for the National Assembly constituency NA-240.

The court said the ECP had not filed comments despite being issued with a notice. The court repeated its notice to the ECP and directed the respondents to file comments on the petition by August 5.

PSP leader Arshad Vohra had said in his petition that the ECP had failed to conduct the by-poll on June 16 as various discrepancies and irregularities had been witnessed, including rigging and manipulation of votes at various polling stations in the presence of the commission’s staff.

Vohra said the PSP had received hundreds of complaints from their polling agents regarding manipulation and manoeuvring of the election process by the candidate of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in the presence of the religious party’s central leadership.

He claimed that TLP workers and supporters, in the presence of their leader, were roaming around the constituency openly displaying firearms to create fear in the areas of Landhi and Korangi.

He said that due to such a fearful environment, most of the voters remained in their homes and did not cast their ballots in favour of any of the candidates, which resulted in the polling ratio in the entire constituency to be less than 10 per cent.