KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the home secretary, provincial police chief, the director general of Rangers and others to submit their respective replies on different constitutional petitions seeking whereabouts of the workers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement allegedly arrested in different parts of the city and detained illegally by the law-enforcers.
A division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto was hearing as many as six petitions against the ‘illegal’ detention of the MQM workers.
The bench that also comprised Justice Shaukat Ali Memon directed the respondents to submit their respective comments on the missing persons’ petitions by June 6 when the matter would be taken up again by the court.
The federal and provincial law officers were also directed by the judges to ensure filing of the comments on behalf of the respondent authorities.
The petitions were filed against the law enforcement agencies for illegally arresting and detaining MQM workers whose whereabouts remained unknown since their disappearance.
The petitioners, represented by Advocates Muhammad Imran and Mumtaz Khan, asked the court to direct the respondent authorities to recover their missing relatives and produce them in court.
Muhammad Sabir, a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, submitted in his petition that the Rangers personnel picked up his younger brother, Muhammad Shahid, near Samdani Hospital on May 11.
The petitioner said that he and other family members contacted the area police and officers of different law enforcement agencies to ascertain Shahid’s whereabouts, but in vain as the officials refused to give any details about the missing man.
Another petitioner, Zohra Hashim, said that her husband, Muhammad Hashim, had been missing since May 6. She said he had gone to his shop at Aysha Manzil but did not get back home.
The woman stated that the family members contacted the area police and also approached the officers of the paramilitary troops for the recovery of her husband, but they did not give any clue to his whereabouts.
She asked the court to direct the respondent law-enforcers to track down and recover her husband.
Petitioner Muhammad Bilal Zia submitted in his petition that his brother, Muhammad Adil Zia, an employee of the Port Qasim Authority, was on duty on May 11 when Rangers personnel whisked him away from his workplace.
He said that he contacted the officers of the paramilitary troops to ascertain his brother’s whereabouts, but in vain as the officials feigned ignorance about the arrest and detention of the detainee.
The petitioner requested the court to direct the paramilitary troops to disclose the location of his brother and produced him in a court of law.
Another petition pertained to the going missing of Muhammad Furqan Khan, an employee of the Karachi Port Trust.
His mother, Sagheer-un-Nisa, stated in her petition that her son was picked up by the law-enforcers from their residence near Nagan Chowrangi on May 6.
She said she and other family members were not given any information by the area police and the law enforcement agencies personnel when contacted.
Similarly, petitioner Nazia Naz submitted in her petition that her husband, Kashif, was picked up in Korangi on May 6 and since then his whereabouts had not been known.
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