KARACHI, Jan 18: Justice Ashraf Leghari of the Sindh High Court has put two FIA officials, along with others, on notice in a constitutional petition pertaining to a dispute over money transactions with another respondent.

The judge has put Rai M. Tahir, Deputy Director, FIA, Economic Wing, Director-General, FIA Headquarters, Islamabad, Najam Zaman and the Federation of Pakistan on notice for Jan 25 in the petition of plaintiff Riffat Mansoor.

Represented by Mahmood A. Qureshi, the plaintiff claimed that he had advanced some money to Najam Zaman, and when he demanded its return, Zaman did not oblige.

Instead of settling the matter, the respondent No 3 contacted the respondent Nos 1 & 2, who had close relations with him, the petitioner claimed, saying that accordingly the respondent No 1 called the plaintiff to his office and allegedly threatened to settle the money dispute with respondent Zaman.

When the plaintiff explained his case to the respondent No 1, he told the petitioner that he was under instructions from “higher-ups” to settle the matter. The petitioner alleged that he was threatened with being implicated in false cases if he did not settle the matter and failed to accept the demand of the respondent.

The petitioner claimed that on January 10, 2001 the respondent No 1 called him to his office and demanded Rs500,000 from him, failing which he was threatened with criminal charges. When he did not accept the demand, the petitioner was detained at an FIA centre.

After negotiations between the petitioner’s father and the FIA official, he was released from detention with a directive to pay the demanded amount within two or three days.

The petitioner alleged that FIA officials had raided his workplace several times with malafide intentions and to harass him

The petitioner prayed for declaring the acts of the respondents illegal, unlawful and to restrain them from harassing him.

POLL PETITION: A division bench of the SHC, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Zia Pervez, has put on notice the Sindh Election Commissioner and Shamshad Qazi, additional district judge-V, Karachi East, in a petition filed by Sultan Ahmed, who was a candidate for councillor in UC-II, Metroville III, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town.