A district and sessions court in Sukkur has issued summons notices to top officials, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for the “loss of Pakistani lives” following the death of Pakistani migrants in a boat capsizing incident off the coast of Greece last month.
Additional Sessions Judge II, while hearing the petition against the ship accident, summoned Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and directed them to appear before the court on January 15.
The petitioner claimed in a petition that unemployed Pakistanis “are ready to leave the country due to the negligence of the government.” “The government’s writ has expired as 75 Pakistanis have lost their lives in the incident,” he added.
The petitioner requested the court to issue a direction to register a case against the government officials in Rohri police station.
The development came after more than 80 Pakistanis drowned after their boats capsized near Greece on the intervening night of December 13 and 14.
Although, 36 Pakistani nationals were rescued, the rest are still missing and should be presumed dead, according to a report by the Pakistani embassy.
Bangladeshi, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals were also on board the boats that departed from Tobruk port in Libya.
Earlier on January 1, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had said that the bodies of four more Pakistanis had been recovered, taking the total number of bodies recovered to nine. The investigation agency says that after finding five more bodies, the number of missing Pakistanis has reached 40.
The Prime Minister ordered to confiscate the properties of human traffickers.
In a related development, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif directed the authorities to take strict legal action against all human trafficking gangs in the country to set an example, besides confiscating the properties and assets of human traffickers. Urgent legal action was demanded to do so.
The PM Office media wing said that he issued these instructions while presiding over the review meeting of measures taken against human trafficking in the country.
The Prime Minister appreciated the recent actions taken by the FIA against government officials involved in human trafficking. After the disciplinary actions, he further directed that strict punitive measures should be taken against the facilitators as well.
In the meeting, the Prime Minister was briefed on measures taken against human trafficking, progress in legal proceedings against facilitators and legislation to end human trafficking.
He said that the process of prosecution should be made more effective against all the people involved in this heinous business, senior lawyers should be appointed for prosecution after consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The Prime Minister said that the Foreign Office should liaise with the concerned countries so that extradition of Pakistanis involved in human trafficking abroad can be expedited.
He further directed that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior should launch an awareness campaign to sensitize the public about using only legal channels for employment abroad.
He said that the country should promote technical training institutions that can provide certified professionals in the international market according to modern requirements, adding that the screening process of people traveling abroad at airports should be made more efficient. To be made.
– With additional input from APP