KARACHI, Sept 27: The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the commander of the Malir Cantonment “to show cause as to why he may not be committed for subordination to the court’s order” after it learnt that the required information about a missing man was not provided to the court despite an earlier warning.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam was seized with one of the over 40 constitutional petitions for the recovery of missing persons.

On Sept 13, while hearing the petition of Zia Iqbal against the detention of his brother Azhar Iqbal, the same bench had directed the federal government law officer to submit an affidavit of a respondent army officer in a missing person case on the next date of hearing.

The missing man was allegedly taken into custody by law-enforcers on May 7, 2011.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the missing man was reportedly in the custody of two army officers — Brig Huda and Col Gulistan.

On the previous hearing, a DSP informed the court that he was told by the cantonment authorities that the brigadier had retired in March 2008, and therefore his involvement in the detention was not possible as the missing person was allegedly picked up in 2011. However, he did not say a word about Col Gulistan.

On Thursday, the court learnt that the affidavit of the army officer concerned was not filed in the court despite the court’s earlier warning.

The federal law officer informed the court that he had written a letter to the defence secretary and the commander of the Malir Cantt on Sept 19 regarding the submission of the officer’s affidavit.

The bench noted “with concerns and dismay that no response and respect to the order and direction of the court was given”. The court observed that it had earlier exercised restraint and did not issue a direct notice to the garrison commander “in expectation that respect of law will prevail”.

It ordered: “We, therefore, are left with no option but to issue notice to the Commander, Malir Cantonment to show cause as to why he may not be committed for any subordination to the order and direction of the court.”

The court also ordered its office to give a copy of the order to the federal law officer to ensure that the court’s orders were communicated to the defence secretary and the army commander.

The hearing was put off to Oct 16.

The same bench ordered the investigation officers in several other petitions to continue their efforts to find the missing persons.

In most cases, the court was informed, the required information regarding the call data was still being obtained from different cellular companies.

Meanwhile, a group of lawyers assured the court that a body of prominent lawyers would be formed to pursue pro bono cases of missing persons.

The assurance came during the hearing of a case of enforced disappearance of Mohammed Afzal, a brother of the late Saud Memon who was allegedly detained by the United States and local agencies for several years for his alleged association with Al-Qaeda and harbouring suspects involved in the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

Petitioner Ayesha, wife of the missing man, was earlier represented by Advocate Maqboolur Rehman, who was killed in a targeted attack. The assassinated lawyer was dealing with cases of several missing people, mainly belonging to alleged proscribed outfits.

The petitioner stated in her petition that her husband, a textile businessman, had gone to offer Maghrib prayers in Jodia Bazaar, but never returned.

The petitioner submitted that her late brother-in-law, Saud Memon, was also detained by intelligence agencies in 2003 and later handed over to the US authorities without any due process of law.The late Mr Memon owned the land where Mr Pearl’s body was found buried after his execution in January 2002. Mr Memon was released by his captors after more than four years of detention in a precarious condition and he died soon after his release in hospital during treatment.

The petitioner said she apprehended that her husband would also be killed and asked the court to direct the law-enforcement agencies to produce him.