KARACHI, March 13: A 13-year-old daughter of a man missing since August last has threatened to set herself on fire if the Supreme Court does not hold hearings on the cases of missing people.

Shireen told Reuters on Tuesday that if the government did not tell her family where her father Gohram Baloch was, and if the Supreme Court failed to hold hearings, she would go to Islamabad next week and set herself on fire.

The family alleges that Gohram Baloch was picked up by law-enforcement agencies at a checkpost in Gwadar last August and has not been heard from since. “We are close to starving because our father is our only breadwinner. If he does not come back, we have no option but to take extreme measures,” said Shireen.

She said the Sindh home secretary had met the family two weeks ago and assured them that Baloch's disappearance would be investigated.

“But until now no one has come back to us,” she said.

The girl and her family have staged a sit-in in Karachi for three months demanding to know Baloch's whereabouts.

“Our only hope of ever seeing our father alive is through the Supreme Court. We beg the president to restore Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and allow him to give us justice,” she said.—Reuters