The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday directed Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat to nominate an executive magistrate in order to recover children allegedly detained at a local brick kilns and produce them before the court today (Thursday).
According to the IHC judgement, Manzoora Bibi approached the IHC against alleged illegal detention of her two children by the owner of Gondal Bricks Company that is located at Haji Camp Road, Islamabad. According to the petitioner, her children are below the age of eight years. In the written judgement, Chief Justice Athar Minallah said that the complaint of the petitioner is of a serious nature and the alleged detention of children is intolerable. “The deputy commissioner, ICT is, therefore, directed to nominate an executive magistrate to forthwith inspect the brick kilns namely, Gondal Bricks Company,” the chief justice remarked. He maintained that the children alleged to be detained shall forthwith be recovered and produced before the court, adding that the DC is further directed to ensure that all the brick kilns within the ICT are inspected in order to ensure that there is no bonded labour in any form or manifestation whatsoever. “The DC and In-charge Police Station, Noon, are directed to fulfill the assignment as this was their official obligations and both appear before court on a fixed date of hearing,” Justice Minallah ordered. The CJ recalled that bonded labour in any form or manifestation is the most detestable practice and intolerable in a society governed under the Constitution. He added it was prohibited under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992.
