24 August 2004	Tuesday	07 Rajab 1425

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HYDERABAD, Aug 23: People's Party Parliamentarians leaders on Monday filed a joint petition in the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, to seek registration of an FIR against some police officers and polling officials.

The PPP leaders, MPAs Sassui Palijo and Makhdoom Jameeluzzaman, and Abdul Sattar Lohar, cited SHOs of Diplo and Kaloi police stations, Tharparkar, SI S. K. Baloch, TPO, Mithi, Tharparkar DPO, presiding officer of a poling station at the Government Girls' Primary School, Diplo, district nazim, AIGP, Mirpurkhas range, returning officer, NA-229, and the state as respondents.

They alleged that petitioners 1 and 2 (Ms Palijo and Mr Jameeluzzaman), who were nominated as polling agents by their party, were tortured, humiliated and illegally arrested by police officials on the instigation of the woman presiding officer of the polling station.

They further alleged that Ms Palijo was dragged inside the polling station and then she and Mr Lohar were thrown into a police mobile in presence of hundreds of people. The petitioners accused the returning officer, additional district judge of Mithi, of using offensive language against them.

They said they were illegally confined for five hours. They said when the DPO, along with police personnel, pushed Ms Palijo and Mr Lohar into a private jeep, a team of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and a BBC reporter were also present.

The petitioners said on Aug 17, a day before the polls, while they were on their way to Mithi, they were detained at gunpoint for four hours at the Wango check-post. They said they escaped from the illegal confinement of police and reached Mithi but police traced them and harassed Ms Palijo, who was compelled to leave Mithi in the night.

The petitioners further alleged that Ms Palijo witnessed on the election day that poling staff filled ballot boxes with fake votes. The petitioners stated that on their objection, the respondents and two woman constables, on the instigation of the district nazim, pointed guns at them, issued death threats and assaulted Ms Palijo.

They said later some respondents tried to kidnap Ms Palijo from the house of Essa Rahimoon. They said when the petitioners talked to the DPO and the Diplo SHO for legal action, they refused to do anything and issued them death threats.

The petitioners said without hearing the petitioners, the returning officer restrained Ms Palijo from acting as an agent in the polls. They observed that these acts by the respondents were in violation of the law as the petitioners were not provided with rights envisaged in the Constitution.

They said they could not enter Tharparkar as they had been threatened with abduction, implication in false cases and torture.