LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Punjab chief secretary and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on petitions of Pakistani wives of two Chinese citizens alleging harassment at the hands of the respondent authorities.

Saima Tabbasum contended in her petition that she married to Chinese citizen Liyang Cheng on Jan 25 last as per Islamic laws while other petitioner, Shabana Ashiq, contracted marriage with Zushu Feng under Christian marriage laws on Jan 18.

The petitioners through counsel submitted that the FIA offloaded them from a plane on May 7 when they were about to fly along with their husbands to China. They said the officials forcibly sent their husbands to China while detained them for interrogation.

The women said the interrogators confiscated their passports and other traveling documents. They claimed that the FIA had been summoning them time and again for interrogation.

The petitioners stated that they had been living happily with their Chinese husbands and the targeted campaign against the Chinese citizens was an attempt to damage Pak-China friendship.

The women said restraining them from flying to China with their husbands was a violation of their fundamental rights under articles 4 and 25 of the Constitution.

The petitioners asked the court to restrain the FIA from harassing them and order it to return their traveling documents so that they could go to their husbands in China.

Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem issued notices to the respondents for May 29.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2019