KARACHI, Dec 2: The Sindh High Court has decreed a suit in the sum of Rs1,500,000 in favour of a former minister for foreign affairs, Agha Shahi, as the defendant has been declared exparte.

The plaintiff was represented by counsel M. Aslam Butt in the suit which was decreed by Justice Zia Perwez.

Brief facts are that the plaintiff, through his letter dated October 12, 1998, had instructed M/s ANZ Grindlays Bank to encash his Special Saving Certificates valued at Rs1,500,000.

The plaintiff vide this letter had also instructed the branch manager, Citibank, Sharea Faisal, to debit his account with the principal amount and to pay it in cash to the defendant, Mohammed Bakhsh Lashari.

The amount was handed over to the defendant on October 14, 1998 in pursuance of the instructions of the plaintiff by the bank manager of Citibank, Sharea Faisal, Karachi.

It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendant paid him only Rs60,000 as profit after a few months and violated the terms of the undertaking by failing to repay the principal amount and profit accrued thereon, on the dates stipulated therein for repayment, ie, 31. 12. 1998 and 28. 2. 1999.

On failure of the defendant to repay the principal amount with profit, as per the terms of undertaking, the plaintiff tried to contact the defendant but the defendant could not be located.

It was only in April, 1999 that the plaintiff managed to contact the defendant by telephone and demanded the repayment of the loan who promised to meet the plaintiff on May 5, 1999 for this purpose, but failed to do so.

The plaintiff finally managed to meet the defendant in Sept 1999 when the defendant executed another undertaking dated September 21, 1999, acknowledging receipt of the principal amount and promising to repay it with profit accrued thereon by December 31, 1999. The plaintiff agreed to this and the time was extended to facilitate the defendant. On failure of the defendant to repay the amount of loan the plaintiff instituted this suit on February 15, 2001.

Service was made upon defendant through bailiff as well as through a courier service but no written statement was filed in spite of several opportunities afforded to the defendant by the additional registrar of this court.