KARACHI, Sept 14: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has moved the Sindh High Court for permission to import a bullet-proof vehicle for her travels in Pakistan on her return.
A petition on her behalf was presented to Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed by her attorney PPP Senator Farooq H. Naek and counsel Adnan Karim on Thursday with a request for urgent preliminary hearing in chambers. The chief justice advised the advocates to file the petition in office for hearing on September 18. Justice Sabihuddin desired the petition be taken up in open court because of its importance. Mr Naek said he was to fly to Dubai to attend a party meeting and meet the PPP chief and might seek the petition’s hearing urgently on his return to Pakistan on Saturday morning.
The petition says that the PPP leader intends to return to Pakistan soon after about eight years of stay abroad. In view of the alarming incidents of suicide bombing, firing, kidnapping and the overall law and order situation in the country, she needed a bullet-proof vehicle for traveling in Pakistan.
Being the chairperson of the country’s most popular party, the petition said, she would have to travel widely to conduct the PPP’s election campaign.
A threat to her and her
family members’ security
and safety could not be ruled out.
Citing a statutory regulatory order, the petition said the Customs Act allowed import of bullet-proof vehicles by citizens subject to certain conditions. She wrote to the Sindh home secretary for the necessary permission with copies of the application endorsed to the federal interior ministry.
However, there had been no response either from the home department or from the interior ministry.
The petition requested the court to direct authorities to issue the necessary permission and authorisation for import of a bullet-proof vehicle by the PPP leader.
