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KARACHI, Dec 6: A full court meeting of the Sindh High Court, held here on December 4, expressed its deep concern over the kidnapping of three additional district and sessions judges of Shikarpur and called upon the investigation agencies to make all-out efforts for their recovery.
Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad informed the meeting that immediately on learning the incident, he spoke to the inspector-general of the Sindh police and conveyed to him his anguish and concern.
The CJ said he was informed and assured that the entire force and its high-ups were attaching the highest priority to the matter and that the court would be kept duly kept informed of the efforts undertaken for the safe recovery of the kidnapped judicial officers.
The meeting was informed that the SHC registrar was in constant contact with the authorities concerned and the court would be informed of any negligence or slackness on the part of the officials responsible for recovering the judicial officers. Meanwhile, security for judicial officers and judges has been beefed up across the province.
CONDEMNATION: The Sindh Bar Council strongly condemned on Monday the kidnapping of three judicial officers, one of whom was later freed, while they were on their way from Rato Dero to Shikarpur.
In a joint statement, SBC vice-chairman Yasin Khan Babar, executive committee chairman Abrar Hasan and members Mustafa Lakhani, Siddique Khoso, Sadiq Hidayatullah, M. Yasin Azad, Abdullah Chandio and Mohammad Aqil urged the government to 'get the kidnapped judicial officers released unharmed at the earliest'.
The culprits should be brought to book and awarded exemplary punishment as kidnapping of judges would have an extremely adverse effect on the entire legal system. If judges and courts were not safe, the administration of justice would become impossible, they warned.
The lawyers criticized the conduct of police and administration. They said the police should have ensured that the judges were provided escort, particularly when they had already informed the administration that they would be travelling from Larkana to Shikarpur by road at dusk.
They suspected that some police officials might well be in league with culprits and the offence, the first of its kind in the country's history, needed to be thoroughly probed to ascertain whether there was a conspiracy to browbeat the judicial officers into submission.
