Zubair Qureshi
Spouse of a real estate businessman has filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the alleged harassment by the police officials.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is taking up her case for hearing on Friday (today).
According to the petitioner, the unidentified uniformed and plain-clothed officials trespassed her house at mid-night without warrants and with no lady police officials with them.
Noshaba Usman wife of Usman Akram filed the petition through advocate Kashif Ali Malik.
She requested the court to issue direction to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to hold inquiry against the alleged high-handedness of the police officials and prayed that the police may be restrained to harass the family.
She adopted in the petition that at about 2:30am of April 6 the policemen barged into her house where she was living along with her five daughters including a 6 months old baby-girl.
“The intruders were not accompanied by any women police officials. The petitioner and her children were kept under illegal confinement for considerable period of time”, the petition said.
She stated in the petition that ever since her husband took over the management of Ghauri Town, pursuant to an agreement with the then owner namely Raja Ali Akbar (late), he is being persistently targeted and harassed by a local Member National Assembly (MNA) and the management of the adjoining housing scheme on one count or the other.
The petition said that a couple of months ago the district magistrate had issued the detention orders of the petitioner’s husband.
The same were assailed and the Islamabad High Court observed that prima facie the reason mentioned in the detention order was not justified and subsequently, the petitioner’s husband was released and this matter is still pending adjudication before the IHC.
It went on to say that despite the above, the station house officer of the police station Koral kept harassing her husband every now and then.
According to the petition on the said mid-night the police officials in plain clothes claiming to be from some civilian intelligence agency stormed into the house of the petitioner where she was residing along with her children.
They barged into the bedroom of the petitioner where she was sleeping along with her minor child and kept them under illegal confinement for around two hours.
They kept inquiring about the petitioner’s husband and extended threats of serious consequences.
The petitioner asked them to show search warrants, if any, which they bluntly refused.
Moreover, during this period the referred respondents along with individuals in plain clothes vandalized petitioner’s house and also took away the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) of the close circuit TV (CCTV) with them.
They kept on saying that her husband needs to settle the property disputes with the lawmaker otherwise he will be in big problem.
According to the petition, such like actions amount to infringement of fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution of Pakistan; including but not limited to the violation of Art 4 (Right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law), Art 25 (equality of citizens) and Article 10-A (Fair Trial and Due process).
It requested the court to that the respondents may be directed to refrain from harassing, intimidating and threatening the petitioner or taking any action not warranted under the law.
Further, the respondents may be directed to exercise their authority within the four corners of law.
