QUETTA, Nov 12: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Balochistan chapter, has criticized the civil administration for its failure to recover a woman belonging to the minority community who had been kidnapped more than a month ago.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Malik Zahoor Shahwani advocate, vice-chairman of HRCP Balochistan, said that a constitutional petition had been filed in the Balochistan High Court to recover Samna Kumari.

He claimed that his organization had brought the kidnapping case to the provincial government's notice and also staged a demonstration to protest against the incident, but the administration remained unmoved.

Accompanied by Preme Kumar, the woman's brother, Mr Shahwani expressed resentment over the law and order situation in Quetta and elsewhere in the province, and said the administration and police were not performing their duties properly to protect people's lives and property.

He said because of this state of affairs, people were often forced to approach courts of law directly to seek remedy. The courts faced an extra load of such petitions which caused delay in the disposal of cases, he added. The HRCP representative demanded that the provincial government take action to recover the woman and bring negligent police officers to task.