ISLAMABAD-The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday turned down a request to suspend a single bench’s decision of imposition of Rs10 million fine on the secretaries of Defense and Interior and others on non-recovery of a missing person.
The IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Babar Sattar conducted hearing on federation’s appeal against payment of fine to the victim family in the missing person case.
The court also directed to club the appeals of Secretary Defense and Secretary Interior in the missing person Ghulam Qadir’s matter and deferred the proceedings for two weeks.
During the hearing, the deputy attorney general requested the court to issue a stay order against the single member bench’s decision for payment of Rs10 million to the victim family.
However, Justice Aamer said that the court had imposed this fine because the state had failed to recover the citizen. The DAG said that first information report (FIR) had been registered and institutions were making efforts to recover the citizen.
The DAG in the Intra Court Appeal (ICA) stated that the said order of the IHC single bench is against the law and facts of the case. He mentioned that the appellant (Secretary Defense) is directly not related to law enforcement and the appellant had obtained information from intelligence agencies i.e. ISI and MI working under its control who have categorically confirmed that detenue is not in their custody.
The DAG maintained that through the impugned order liability has been fixed on the appellant and other respondents to the petition on mere assertions of respondent to the instant appeal.
Therefore, he prayed to the court that the impugned judgment be set aside and the said writ petition be dismissed in order to ensure and meet the ends of justice.
In this regard, a single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued the order of imposition of Rs10 million fine on the secretaries of interior and defense, SP (investigation) and Golra SHO over their failure to investigate a missing person case in a petition filed by the brother of missing person Ghulam Qadir.
The IHC bench imposed the fine saying that they have “jointly been held responsible for their failure to provide due protection to Ghulam Qadir.” It further said that the state machinery is responsible in this case and by fixing the responsibility upon the aforesaid officials the authorities have been given 30 days to recover Qadir.
The brother of missing person stated in the petition that 40-year-old Qadir was detained while he was travelling to his house near Orakzai Market with his 13-year-old son on August 28, 2014. He added that five to six men in a white car detained his brother when he reached near an underpass.
His lawyer adopted before the court that Qadir was allegedly kidnapped by law enforcement agencies and there is information about Qadir since 2014. He told the court that Qadir’s brother filed an FIR at the Golra Sharif police station and even filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.
The IHC bench said in its order that the matter was not investigated by the police authorities despite the best efforts of the petitioner. It also said that the investigation officer of the case and the SP were unable to justify any of their action on the basis of the investigation referred in the police diaries.