HYDERABAD, Sept 7: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, on Wednesday issued pre-admission notices to the Additional Advocate-General of Sindh, provincial home and transport secretaries, Abdul Rauf, the special assistant to the Sindh chief minister, the IGP of Sindh and others on a constitutional petition, alleging highhandedness of government functionaries against the PPP MPA from Nawabshah, Tariq Masood Arain.

The MPA was represented by Advocate Zahoor Baloch.

He said his one brother was a nazim while another was a naib nazim from Nawabshah.

He said that Abdul Rauf, Zafar Arain and the local police and law enforcing agencies put undue pressure on him and forced his brothers not to participate in the elections against the government backed candidates.

On their refusal he was arrested and was kept in a confinement on August 25 and released the next day.

He said his brothers took part in the local body elections despite highhandedness of the government and won their seats.

The petitioner said that now the third phase of LB polls for taluka and district nazims was about to begin and the officials had started pressurizing them to vote for the government-backed candidates.

Secretary of the home department called him over telephone and used abusive language and threatened him of dire consequences if he did not withdraw in favour of his candidates, he said.

Mr Arain said that the Nawabshah DPO had raided the houses of his father, brothers and other relatives on September 3 to harass them. Since then the entire family had to leave Nawabshah for a safer place, he added.

He said that Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi repeatedly called him over telephone and said, “How long you will hide from us. You will be murdered like Suharwardi without any witness.”

The petitioner said that he was associated with a transport business between Nawabshah to Karachi via Hyderabad.

He said police had been posted at his private bus stop since September 1, and four of his air-conditioned coaches had been taken away by police.

He said he could not go to Karachi or Nawabshah under these circumstances as he was hiding to save his life.

The MPA requested to the court to stop the government from harassing his family, and putting undue pressure to withdraw in their favour.