KARACHI:Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday expressed displeasure over the absence of Director General (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in petitions seeking recovery of 19 missing children.
The two-judge SHC bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, hearing cases of missing children, expressed displeasure over the FIA for absence of its DG.
A notice had been issued in the last hearing to the investigating agency after a question was raised about the possibility of using these missing children in human trafficking. Despite the court orders, the DG FIA did not appear before the court.
The bench directed him to appear on next hearing at any cost, and asked from government counsel that where is DG FIA, why did he not appear before court?
The police officials presented a recovered child before the court and told the bench that child was being recovered from Chippa shelter home.
Due to the negligence of Investigation Officer (IO) of Garden Police, the child had been in shelter home for many days.
The bench directed the inspector general of the Sindh police to look into the matter personally. It also directed the FIA and Police to carry out joint efforts for the recovery of other missing children.
The bench remarked that there was extreme apprehension in families due to the non-recovery of their missing children.
DIG Crime informed the court that they had formed a team on the orders of IGP Sindh.
The Roshni Helpline, petitioner, told the court that only one out of 19 missing children has been recovered as yet.
The court again ordered CIA DIG Amin Yusufzai, who is heading a committee, to make efforts for the recovery of the missing children, and use modern devices for the purpose and show progress at the next hearing.
The Justice directed the DIG CIA to submit a progress report by 17th January after recovering the missing children.
The bench also expressed annoyance at police for not arresting the accused involved in sexually harassment of a child and directed the police officials to arrest the accused at all costs.
The petition was filed by NGO Roshni Research and Development Welfare in 2012 seeking court directives to the provincial police for considering the missing children cases, who went missing in different parts of Karachi, a cognizable offence and registering FIRs in that regard.
The NGO alleged that cases of missing children were not properly investigated by the police which resulted in many preventable deaths.
The court, later, adjourned the hearing till the 17th January.