KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the interior ministry and other respondents on petitions filed by former president Dr Arif Alvi and his two family members seeking to unfreeze their banks accounts.

A two-judge constitutional bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, also put a federal law officer on notice for June 5.

Citing the interior secretary, National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), various private banks and others as respondents, Dr Alvi, his wife Samina and their son, Awab, approached the SHC and sought directives for respondents to unfreeze their bank accounts.

Representing the petitioners, Barrister Ali Tahir submitted that the former president has been subjected to political victimisation for a considerable and continuous period and that such campaign was seemingly driven by mala fide intent and politically motivated hostility which has now escalated to an alarming level.

He contended that the NCCIA has reportedly initiated baseless inquiries against Dr Alvi under Sections 298 (uttering words, etc, with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) and 298-A (use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of holy personages) of the Pakistan Penal Code pertaining to extremely sensitive blasphemy-related allegations.

The counsel also submitted that the NCCIA has reportedly mailed an undated letter to all commercial banks in which the petitioners held accounts and directing them to block the bank accounts in question citing Section 25 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 and Section 5 of the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974.

He submitted that pursuant to the impugned directive, the petitioners have been deprived of all access to their personal and lawful funds and they were unable to deposit, withdraw or manage their finances, rendering the petitioners financially paralysed.

The lawyer further argued that neither Section 5 of the FIA Act nor Section 25 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act conferred any authority upon the respondents to unilaterally freeze or block the bank accounts of any citizen without the observance of due process, legal formalities and prior judicial approval.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025