Staff Reporter
The SHC bench on Wednesday directed the mother of an infant, who went missing from
Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, to challenge the findings of the DNA report submitted by the Health
Department of Sindh and concluding that DNA of the child the aggrieved parents suspected to be theirs
did not match their samples.A two-member bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and
Justice Irshad Ali Shah, issued the directive during the hearing of the plea pertaining to the
disappearance of the infant from the hospital, filed by the missing newborn’s mother, Hina Ashfaq.In the
plea, the petitioner claims that she has been searching for her son for the past four years and alleges that “police colluded with the doctors involved in the infant’s disappearance.” The allegation is made on
grounds that CCTV cameras at the hospital were dysfunctional on the day the infant went missing, the
plea states.The provincial health department submitted a report to the court, contending that the DNA
of the child that the petitioner suspected to be hers did not match her and her husband’s samples.At
this, Ashfaq argued that the DNA report is that of a seven-year-old child while her son would be four
years old now. The court directed Ashfaq to challenge the report’s findings in the court. According to
police, a woman and some beggars, suspected of being involved in the infant’s abduction, have been
arrested on the petitioner’s indication.The bench comprising Justice Mazhar and Justice Sayeed, issued
notices to the federal and the provincial government over a plea pertaining to wheat shortage,
smuggling and hoarding.The petitioner, Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, has stated in the plea that wheat crisis
in the country was a consequence of inflation and the incumbent government had failed in dealing with
the crisis. He claims that the crisis is “created artificially”, on grounds that “wheat was being smuggled
outside Pakistan for the past six months by a mafia that intended to earn billions [from the illegal
trade].”
