October 18, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 24, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: A civil court judge has issued notice to a diplomat in the Pakistani embassy in Ukraine and directed him to show reasons for deliberately withholding the migration papers of a citizen for three years.

The summon was issued by civil judge Zafar Iqbal Tarar after preliminary hearing of the case.

A Pakistani-Ukraine citizen Dr Ghulam Sarwar had filed a petition making the foreign office, Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine and second secretary of Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine Muhammad Amir Khan respondents.

The petitioner has also made a claim of Rs6 million against the state institutions concerned and the embassy official for not delivering him the documents for three long years which, besides the mental torture that he suffered as a result of the artificial problems created by the diplomat concerned, compelled him to have about five visits to Pakistan spending huge amount of money.

Counsel for the petitioner Rafique A Sakhrani argued before the court that Mr Ghulam Sarwar submitted an application to the Pakistani embassy in Ukraine in October 2003 for quitting Pakistani citizenship in return for the citizenship of Ukraine. Pakistani immigration authorities accepted it and issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) on October 8, 2003. The NOC was dispatched to the Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine for onward delivery to the applicant, Dr Ghulam Sarwar.

The latter had to approach the Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine time and again to get his papers but the embassy officials showed ignorance about receiving any NOC. The petitioner said that whenever he contacted the embassy he received reply in negative. This compelled him to visit Pakistan to know about the papers.

But the immigration officials informed him that his NOC had been sent to Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine and that he would get it from there. Dr Ghulam Sarwar again went to Ukraine and approached the Pakistani Embassy there but he was not delivered the NOC.

As such, the petitioner had to pay about five visits to Pakistan to get his NOC which had been lying with Muhammad Amir Khan, the second secretary of the Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine.

In 2006, after three years of its issuance, the secretary concerned sent the certificate back to Pakistani immigration authorities for cancellation. However, on the intervention of the Pakistani interior ministry, the NOC was issued to the petitioner in March this year.