ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Friday remarked that action have to be taken against “influential” in missing persons case.
The apex court while hearing the plea on the recovery of Mehreen Baloch’s daughters who had been missing for five years ordered the Sindh police to recover them within a month. Chief Secretary Sindh while terming the incident a failure of the Sindh police told the court that a high-level probe was going on to produce the girls adding the joint investigation team (JIT) constituted to investigate consisted of officers from the Inter-services intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial remarked that influential persons not only connived in the abduction of girls but also protected the accused. “As the court intends to strengthen the state institutions, it did not take suo-motu notice of the incident”, he added. The court would, he said, protect the basic rights [of citizens], and state institutions should perform their duties constitutionally.
Justice Athar Minallah remarked that the administration was not capable enough to protect the citizens as no one was ready to accept the responsibility of children missing for five years adding if the perpetrators were held accountable, the court would not be hearing the case today. “Furnish the names of individuals responsible for the incident as someone must be held accountable”, he added.
Additional Attorney General (AAG) said it was not a good practise to take action against the state institutions.
Justice Ayesha Malik remarked that a single individual was so powerful that he let the whole system go down. The court adjourned the hearing later.
