KARACHI, Feb 13: A citizen who had purchased a flat in Karachi is running from pillar to post only to know about the fate of his plea for the verification of the power of attorney by the owners of the property who live are presently in London.

The applicant doesn’t know how long he will have to wait and how serious mental agonies he will have to undergo as the Karachi camp office of the ministry of foreign affairs has, perhaps, not even sent the documents for verification to the Pakistan embassy in London despite the passage of more than seven months.

The applicant had approached the officials concerned to seek information about any progress but they would not even oblige to talk to him.

The citizen had purchased a flat in June last year and since the power of attorney needed verification from London, where the owners of the property are settled, the office of the Registrar of Properties forwarded the documents to the Secretary, RS&EP, Board of Revenue, Sindh (Dispatch No: 69/SRT Div 1-A) on June 20, 2005. The same was received by the Secretary, SR&EP office on June 22, 2005 who forwarded it to the Karachi Camp Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on July 1, 2005 (No: Secy(RSEP)/BOR/05-537).

Since the citizen did not receive the registration of his flat for over seven months, he approached the offices of Registrar and the Secretary RSEP who advised him to approach the Karachi Camp Office of the foreign ministry.

On Saturday last, when he visited the camp office, he was told that the deputy chief (protocol), who heads the camp office would not meet him. He was referred to another person, who introduced himself as Sohail Siddiqui and claimed to be a director, refused to give him any information, saying “we are not bound to provide any information.”

When the citizen insisted that since the matter pertains to him and he just wanted to know whether the documents were sent to London for verification or not, the official refused again and ordered him to leave the office.—PPI