KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday expressed anger over the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) failure to provide travel history of missing persons to police and asked the agency’s director general for Sindh to appear in court in person on March 10 along with relevant record.

The double bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, which was hearing a set of identical petitions about missing persons, said that it was observed in most of the cases that the travel history had not been provided by the FIA to investigating officers probing the missing persons’ cases. “The DG of FIA shall look into the matter personally, else appropriate orders in this regard shall be passed,” said the bench.

The judges observed that a 70-year-old petitioner appeared very disturbed as his son had been missing for the past many years but the IO of the case had still not been able to collect his foreign travel history from the FIA as well as from detention and internment centres of the country.

The IO contended that he had sent several letters to the FIA seeking the travel history but to no avail. The judges then ordered the director of FIA Sindh to appear in court on March 10 and asked Karachi police chief as well to look into the case of missing persons.

FIA’s Sindh DG asked to appear in court on March 10 along with relevant record

The judges observed that the provincial task force had only gone through formalities and not performed its duty well.

They asked provincial home secretary to supervise missing persons cases and pass orders to the IOs.

The bench issued the directives during hearing of two petitions, one filed by Mohammad Anwar Minhas seeking whereabouts of his son Ahmad Minhas, who was reportedly picked up in 2012 in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, and the second moved by a woman asking for the recovery of her husband Jan Akka Khel, who was said to be taken away in Gadap in 2017.

Another IO complained that the FIA was approached to collect travel history of Paiyo Gul, who had allegedly gone missing in Korangi Industrial Area since 2015 but the required information had not been passed on to the police official so far.

Besides summoning the director of FIA, the bench directed the provincial authorities to resume sessions of joint investigation team and provincial task force and asked an IO to collect travel history and record from the detention and internment centres to ascertain the whereabouts of Syed Moosa, who was allegedly picked up by law enforcement agencies in a Landhi locality in 2015.

The court summoned the SHO of Rizvia Society to court on March 10 after a lawyer for a petitioner Rashida Fatima, who appealed to the SHC for the recovery of her son Mohammad Zakir, informed the bench that the petitioner approached the SHO to lodge a case but he did not entertain the plea.

The bench disposed of some identical petitions after it was informed that the missing persons had safely returned to their homes, and also issued notices to the respondents on fresh petitions.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2019