KARACHI, June 5: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notice to the advocate-general for Friday in a writ petition alleging harassment of a Christian family looking after a church and its property in Sher Shah Colony.

The petitioner, Shahnaz Bhatti, headmistress of the City Government School, said she and her family live in an annexe to the church at Sher Shah, which serves the Christian community under the supervision of her paralyzed husband. The Keamari Town Nazim, some councillors and policemen and certain other individuals were out to evict them from the premises.

They first demolished the boundary-wall of the church and when she resisted, they put the family into a police mobile.

The culprits, she alleged, through Advocate Ghulam Qadir Jatoi, were violating the privacy of her home and publicly hurling insults, abuse and threats.

Her right to life, honour, privacy, dignity, property and protection of law were being threatened with impunity. She had addressed several complaints to the authorities but no action had been taken, so far.

The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, directed that the advocate-general be issued a notice in the petition for Friday.

Earlier, the bench took a serious notice of the absence of provincial government law officers from the court. It observed that only urgent matters were being entertained by the court, but even they were being generally adjourned due to the non-availability of law officers. Many of the grievances could be effectively dealt with if law officers were at hand to assist the court. It asked the Advocate-General, Anwar Mansoor Khan, to ensure that law officers were duly assigned to assist the bench during the summer vacation.