KARACHI: Six Chinese citizens, who had moved the Sindh High Court against alleged police harassment a couple of days ago, on Tuesday filed an application seeking withdrawal of their petition.

On Jan 24, the SHC had issued notices to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and its consulate in Karachi and federal and provincial law officers on a petition filed by four Chinese men — Xu Hui, Zhang Lichun, Zeng Fanxiong, Liuhaiguang — and two women, Deng Huan Yang Zhita, against alleged harassment.

They submitted in the petition that they, along with thousands of other Chinese citizens, came here after fulfilling all required legal formalities and invested a significant amount of money and resources in various business ventures and sectors in Pakistan. However, the Sindh police had engaged in repeated acts of harassment over the last six to seven months to unjustifiably restricting their movements.

Their allegations sparked a controversy as the Sindh home minister first ordered a probe into Chinese nationals’ allegations, but then claimed that their petition was not legally valid as the Chinese nationals did not follow protocol.

Fresh application filed before SHC states they are satisfied following assurances from senior government officials

Against this backdrop, petitioners’ lawyer Peer Rehman Mehsud filed an application in the SHC for withdrawal of the petition of his clients.

He stated that his clients were unwilling to proceed further, as they were “satisfied” following assurances from senior government officials.

The application states: “That after order dated 24.01.2025 of this Hon’ble Court, the deponent and other petitioners were approached and have been assured by the authorities, on high level, to redress our grievances in accordance with law stricto sensu and have also taken some material steps in that regard, as such being satisfied, we do not want to further proceed with the matter.

“However, we reserve our rights of legal proceedings for any future cause. That unless and until my accompanying application is granted the deponent and other petitioners in particular, and other Chinese nationals/investors, in general, shall be seriously prejudiced and suffer irreparable losses and injuries,” it concluded.

On Jan 24, a constitutional bench of the SHC had issued notices to the respondents with a direction to file comments in four weeks. The same bench will decide the fate of their application to withdraw the petition.

The petitioners stated that harassment, unlawful detainments, unjustified restriction on their movement and even “taking illegal gratifications on the part of police and others” directly infringed upon their universally recognised fundamental rights, which were also guaranteed under the Constitution of Pakistan.

They also alleged that the police were taking bribes to let them leave their houses and they had also sealed seven industrial units of some other Chinese nationals without any prior notice and on the pretext of security reasons.

The petitioner claimed that their miseries started from arriving at the airport. They have to wait for hours as they cannot leave for their houses without bulletproof vehicles for which they have to pay handsome amounts.

However, Sindh police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon had defended the security measures and said that in view of attacks on Chinese nationals by the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the police were taking the issue of Chinese security more seriously by addressing any possible gap or lapse in the security.

He said probably certain Chinese nationals wanted “free movement” but “we cannot compromise their security”. He said their certain local sponsors or hosts were not willing to bear the cost of security by providing them bulletproof vehicles or construct walls or barbed wires and install CCTVs.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2025