CJP urged to take suo moto notice of police inaction to recover kidnapped children

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has been implored to take suo moto action in incidents of children’s kidnapping and to order the police to register immediate FIRs.

This request was made by Naveed Ahmed, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and head of the Legal Aid Committee, Roshni Helpline, while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday afternoon.

Visibly emotionally charged, the advocate gave the police a mouthful for their negligence towards the issue and said, “The police are most nonchalant and unsympathetic in such cases. They refuse to lodge an FIR right away on the premise that this is not a cognizable offence, with the result that by the time the process of investigation begins, the kidnapped child has passed through many hands and thus cannot be recovered.”

He said four children had been kidnapped in the recent past, but the police had assumed the most apathetic attitude towards the issue. According to a rough estimate, he said that around 4,000 children disappeared in Karachi annually. “This is just an inferred figure, gathered from national and international media, and indirect sources. The actual number could even be higher,” he said.

He said that police in such cases just refused to register the FIR.

In many cases, he said that when the parents or the guardians of the kidnapped child went over to the police station to seek the lawmen’s help in their hour of extreme grief, they were met with the reply, “You go and look for the child and once you determine his/her whereabouts, just let us know and we’ll go and recover the child.”

He said that almost all the children that were whisked away were from the poorer segment of society because the rich had the money to have protective walls built around their homes, or they could shell out large sums of money to “grease the palms of the concerned authorities”.

He said, “The Sindh High Court judges had ordered the police to take immediate action and had even appointed a focal person but the police didn’t bother. Things have reached such a pass that the police don’t bother about the verdict of the judiciary.”

Male kidnapped children, he said, ended up as street beggars, often physically mutilated, while the female children mostly ended up in brothels.

Muhammad Mubasshar Khalid, social case worker, Roshni Helpline, who was also present at the press conference, provided details of four kidnapped children.

According to him, Mursaleen, 6, daughter of Khizer Hayat, a worker in the Landhi Industrial Area, mysteriously disappeared on August 26, 2017. Today, 10 months after the tragedy, the child remains untraced. The parents are still running from pillar to post for the recovery of the child.

Two-year-old Nida, daughter of Abdul Razaaq, a labourer of New Karachi area, was kidnapped right in front of her house on November 17, 2017.

While the parents, according to Khalid, rushed to the police station to have the FIR registered, the duty officer just sent them back home, saying, “Come back after two hours as the SHO is not in his seat.”

“Today even after seven months of the incident, police have not bothered to recover the child,” he said.

Ayaz, 30-month-old son of Nazimullah, a pushcart vendor of Quaidabad, mysteriously disappeared on June 8, 2018. Nineteen days after the incident, the child remains untraced.

Yousuf, 3, son of Muhammad Raheem, a resident of Awami Colony, Korangi, who went with his mother to fetch water on March 9, 2018, disappeared. On repeated protestations by the parents, the police registered the FIR 10 days late. The child has not been recovered.

At the end of the press conference, Advocate Naveed Ahmed again implored the chief justice of Pakistan to tackle the issue on a war footing. He said that the situation for the whole country was the same and that there had to be a solution on a national scale.