HYDERABAD, Sept 16: Police officials on Thursday denied before the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, any harassment to PPP MPA Tariq Masood Arain. The Additional Advocate-General, Sindh, Masood A. Noorani, filed statements of the DPO of Nawabshah, the SHO of police station A and B-sections in response to MPA’s constitutional petition.

Petitioner’s counsel Zahoor A. Baloch sought time to go through the comments and file the rejoinder.

DPO Syed Ghayasuddin Rashdi said he took over as DPO on September 4 while the incident mentioned in the legislator’s petition occurred on September 3.

He said on Sept 2, the Nawabshah traffic sergeant impounded four buses (P-0785, JA-8083, JA-8107 and LBS-8140) under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance and they were released on the same day for which applicant Liaquat Ali Arain, manager of the petitioner filed human rights application before the sessions judge of Nawabshah.

The application was decided on Sept 5 by the court with directives to police not to harass applicant. He said no illegal action was taken against the petitioner and prayed the court to delete petitioner’s name from among respondents. B-section police station SHO Rais Khanzada said the petitioner was not residing in the area.

He said neither the petitioner nor his father was wanted in any criminal case of the B-section police station.

He denied having conducted any raid on the petitioner’s house.

The SHO A-section police station rejected charges of harassment saying that coaches of petitioner were never impounded.

He said on September 5, he appeared before the sessions judge after one Liaquat Ali, in-charge of air conditioned coach service filed an application before the court which disposed of the matter after hearing the parties. He said a civil suit filed by the petitioner was pending. He said no harassment was caused to the petitioner.

The petitioner in the petition had prayed the court to direct provincial election commission and district returning officer to put an end to undue pressure on brothers of the petitioner, Jawed Iqbal and nazim-elect Pervez Manzoor.