KARACHI, Feb 15: The Sindh High Court has directed the provincial government to pay compensation to a petitioner for violation of his fundamental right to property by its officials.

The amount of compensation (Rs7,500), for an unlawfully transferred motorcycle, might be recovered by the government from the delinquent officials, the senior superintendent police, Karachi East, the SHO Brigade police station and the director (motor vehicles) excise and taxation, for having caused a wrongful loss to it by misuse of power under the service rules applicable to them, Justice Shabbir Ahmed observed in a rare order awarding damages against the state for infringement of a citizen’s fundamental rights.

The motorcycle was owned by petitioner Fakhar-i-Alam, but was seized by the police from his brother and co-petitioner, Advocate Jan-i-Alam, when he was booked and arrested along with 13 others under a martial law regulation in 1981. It was handed over to the Brigade police station malkhana together with four other vehicles impounded from the accused as case property.

Advocate Jan-I-Alam was deported to Syria as a result of negotiations over the PIA plane hijacked to Kabul later in 1981. He returned to Pakistan in April 1988 and was re-arrested. The provincial government, however, withdrew the case in 1989 and all the accused were discharged. Petitioner Fakhar-i-Alam moved the court for return of the case property - his motorcycle.

The proceedings on the recovery plea revealed that the motorcycle had been transferred to a stranger on forged documents. Fakhar approached the high court through Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi, and his writ petition was admitted to regular hearing in May 1994.

Relying on article 4 of the Constitution guaranteeing the right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law and article 24 protecting property rights and citing the case law, Advocate Razvi submitted that in view of the non-availability of the motorcycle, he would press only for compensation. The high court, he argued, was not denuded of its power to grant relief deemed fit in the peculiar circumstances of the case.

Accepting the plea earlier this month, Justice Ahmed observed that the acts of the respondent police officials were detrimental to the petitioner’s right to property enshrined in article 24. To enforce fundamental rights, the high court was competent, in appropriate cases, to order payment of monetary compensation to the victims of violation.

“Such compensation is payable by way of public law duty of the state and its functionaries independently of a private right that a citizen may have to claim damages through ordinary proceedings,” the judgment said.

The petitioner was entitled to compensation in the sum of Rs7,500 to be paid by the Sindh government, which might recover the amount from the officials concerned in accordance with the rules, the judge ordered.