KARACHI, Nov 24: A middle-aged woman collapsed in a courtroom in the Sindh High Court on Friday afternoon and lay unconscious on the floor for over half an hour before being taken to hospital in a volunteer service ambulance.

The SHC Bar Association’s dispensary was closed for Friday prayers and though the court staff had informed the Edhi Centre in time, the ambulance arrived there after considerable delay.

Nasim Kausar had come to the court in the morning along with her husband Khalid Javed, a businessman, and their son Musaddaq Javed to complain about a midnight raid conducted jointly by the NAB and the police on her house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed had called Khalid to his chamber after the end of the day’s proceedings and told him to come after the prayers. Nasim, a diabetic and heart patient, collapsed before Khalid was called again and it was learnt that the CJ had asked him to see him on Saturday morning.

According to a joint representation addressed by the couple to the chief justice, three officials of the National Accountability Bureau and several policemen in three vans stormed into their bungalow in Block 11, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, at about 1am.

The raiding party stormed into the house and made Nasim, her four daughters and two young sons sit in the lounge despite being told that no adult male was present at home at the time.

The family was not allowed to talk to each other or to contact Khalid, the head of the family, who had gone to the weekly Thursday night Tableeghi Jamaat congregation.

Terming the raiding party’s conduct highly insulting and humiliating, the family said that a member of the raiding party even beat up Mr Khalid’s elder son Musaddaq, who is barely 14.

The party said they were looking for Khalid’s friend Anwar Kamal, a trader, who according to their information, was hiding in the house.

They were assured that nobody was hiding in the house. They searched the entire premises and remained there till about 7am. They threatened to carry out another ‘search’.

Khalid learnt about the raid on his return from the mosque at about 7:30am and came to the high court along with his wife and son to seek protection.