KARACHI, Nov 24 The Sindh High Court on Wednesday put the chiefs of three law-enforcement agencies and others on notice in a petition seeking protection for a construction business tycoon.

Petitioner Nadia Osman Jung, represented by Advocate Muhammad Ashraf Kazi, submitted that her brother, Faisal Vawda, was being harassed and blackmailed on the instigation of a top bureaucrat, who wanted to take over the possession of an under-construction project of the Faisal Vawda Group at Zamzama in the Defence Housing Authority.

Besides the Sindh chief secretary and the home secretary, she impleaded the three chiefs of the law-enforcement agencies — the Rangers director-general, the FIA DG and the Sindh police chief — as respondents.

A division bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed issued notices to the respondents and adjourned the hearing to Dec 1.

The petitioner submitted that her brother was associated with the construction business, had 300 employees and paid over Rs5 million as income tax in 2009.

She said that on Oct 31 a police party raided the under-construction building, broke open the locks and took away goods worth Rs1.2 million.

She stated that the area police did not register an FIR of the incident and instead they recorded it only in the station diary.

She said that her brother was being chased by vehicles bearing registration number plates of the Sindh government since Oct 1.

She said that on Oct 2 a close relative of a top bureaucrat sent a message for vacating the under-construction building otherwise her brother would be implicated in criminal cases.

She prayed to the court to restrain respondents from harassing and blackmailing her brother.

The petitioner also prayed to the court to direct the respondents to place on court record the number and nature of inquiries, cases, FIRs, if any, against her brother.

Free-will couple case

Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court allowed a woman who had married without the consent of her parents to go with her husband.

Ghulam Hussain had married Naila on April 5 in Karachi after the woman executed her free will certificate.

However, the woman's family did not accept the marriage and called a jirga that handed back the newly married woman to her parents for two weeks asking her husband to pay Rs700,000 and tender an unconditional apology for taking his wife back.

The petitioner submitted that the parents of his wife refused to hand over her to him, although he was willing to fulfil all conditions laid down by the jirga.

On Wednesday, the woman, who was produced by her father, Saeed Ahmed, on a court order, stated in court that she wanted to go with her husband.

The court allowed her prayer and adjourned the hearing to Nov 29 directing the petitioner and respondents to sort out their differences amicably.