KARACHI: The ministry of interior informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday that a request had been sent to Interpol in Abu Dhabi to provide destination country as well as passport number of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Hammad Siddiqui, who is a proclaimed offender (PO) in Baldia factory fire case, on the basis of which he left the country and that their response was awaited.

The SHC directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to take concrete steps to apprehend around 44,000 proclaimed offenders (POs) across the province.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto also asked the labour department to file a comprehensive report about the factories operating in residential areas and the measures taken against them.

The SHC further granted four weeks after the ministries and other authorities concerned sought more time to comply with its earlier orders about the extradition of three POs from overseas, blocking the computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and freezing bank accounts of all POs in Sindh as well as inspection and certification of factories in the city.

IGP told to take steps to arrest around 44,000 proclaimed offenders

During the previous hearing, the SHC had ordered cancelation of CNICs, bank accounts and passports of over 50,000 POs in Sindh besides their arrest.

At the outset of hearing on Monday, the ministry of interior filed an interim compliance report regarding the efforts being made to bring back three POs from abroad to face the trial.

Interpol, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and ministry of foreign affairs had also been approached to submit progress reports about Taqi Haider Shah, who had fled the country after killing an insurance officer in Karachi around 10 years ago, it added.

The ministry in its report also maintained that Khurram Nisar, who had escaped to Sweden after killing police constable Abdur Rehman in November 2022 in a Clifton locality, was in Sweden and the Sindh home department and IGP had been asked to provide extradition documents so that the matter could be taken up with the Swedish authorities through diplomatic channels.

The ministry of foreign affairs in its report asserted that its mission in Abu Dhabi was approaching the UAE foreign ministry for update about extradition of Shah.

A law officer of State Bank of Pakistan through a report informed the bench that in the light of a previous court order, the bank accounts of those three POs had been frozen.

About the POs in Sindh, IGP Riffat Mukhtar Raja submitted that details of around 50,000 POs had been sent to the SBP, ministry of interior and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for freezing their bank accounts, canceling passports and blocking CNICs.

However, the SBP law officer informed the bench that the bank did not maintain database of bank accounts and they had no related record.

The SBP could forward a letter to the banks for necessary compliance of the court order if the CNIC numbers of these POs were provided while the Sindh home department had been approached for such details, he added.

The Nadra director general (DG) in his interim report submitted that the 18 booklets received from the home department did not contain the CNIC numbers of those POs and hence it had been approached to provide the same along with complete information.

The report also maintained that the list of another 369 POs received from the Larkana SSP had their CNIC numbers and out of them 261 had been digitally impounded, 81 CNICs found invalid and 27 CNICs were containing incorrect names.

The focal person for the home department informed the SHC that the Sindh IGP had been approached to provide CNIC numbers of the listed POs to the SBP, ministry of interior and Nadra.

The bench directed the Nadra DG to share details of the POs along with their CNICs to the home department which must communicate the same to the SBP for freezing of their bank accounts.

The IGP in his report submitted that out of the 50,058 POs, 1,298 had been arrested, 4,766 had been admitted to bail/struck off while 43,994 were still at large.

The bench directed him to take concrete steps in order to arrest the remaining POs and file compliance report on Nov 24.

The labour department secretary in an interim compliance report asserted that out of the 4,144 factories in the city, 1,530 had been visited and 623 were certified by the officers of the department so far while a list of 502 inspected factories had already been placed on record.

“On the next date of hearing, a comprehensive report containing the list of the factories/ karkhanas, which are working in residential areas, and the steps taken against them shall be placed on record,” the bench directed.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023