KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday restrained the federal and provincial law enforcement agencies from taking a coercive action against the Lea­der of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and his family mem­bers in connection with crim­inal case, if any to be lodged against them, till Jan 19.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Salahuddin Panhwar and Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan, also issued notices to the Advocate General and Prosecutor General of Sindh, Deputy Attorney General and Special Public Prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau for the next date and adjourned the hearing.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader petitioned the SHC through his counsel Raj Ali Waheed Kunwar, who submitted that the court had disposed of the present petition of his client on Dec 22 last year after it was provided with a list of pending cases lodged against him by the police and Anti-Corruption Estab­lishment in the Sindh province.

The counsel said while at that juncture the petitioner had choosen to not press the instant petition; however, thereafter the respondent agencies were continuously harassing Mr Sheikh despite the fact that they decided to stay quite when such information was required from them by the court previously.

Mr Kunwar submitted that on Dec 6 last year the incumbent court had passed an order directing the respondents that no coercive action be taken against the petitioner or any of his family members till the next date of hearing.

He requested for resurrection of the said order till the details of all the cases were provided to the court, which the law enforcement agencies intend to pursue against the petitioner and his family.

Published in Dawn, january 3th, 2023