PESHAWAR, Aug 8: A local court has issued summons to an international airline, federal government and immigration authorities in a Rs1.5 million damages suit filed by a Pakistani citizen.

Plaintiff Mudassar Afridi has claimed that he was to depart from Oman for the UK but was stopped from doing so and was detained at the Muscat and Bahrain airports for three days without any justification.

Judicial Magistrate Ms Farzina Aurangzeb has fixed Sep 15 for the next hearing of the case in which a further Rs40,000 has been claimed as price of the air ticket and Rs 1,40,000 as value of the luggage lost during the confinement of the plaintiff.

The defendants in the suit are: Gulf Air Co International through its chief executive in Karachi and area manager of the airline in Peshawar, the director general immigration, Islamabad, the director immigration in Peshawar and the federal government through federal interior secretary.

Paintiff Afridi has claimed that he was duly issued a UK visa and he planned to visit UK on July 3, 2006. He spent bought a ticket for England via Muscat for Rs40,000 from the defendant airline M/s the Gulf Air Co International and departed from the Peshawar Airport. He has alleged that when his plane landed at the Muscat airport, the airline officials debarred him from onward travel to the UK.

His counsel Khushal Khan pleaded that the airline officials had no authority to bar his client from onward journey as he had a valid visa.

The counsel alleged that he was illegally confined first at the Muscat Airport and then at the Bahrain Airport for three days and two nights and was thus subjected to severe mental and physical torture and then returned to Pakistan.

He submitted that the family members of the plaintiff in Pakistan as well as in the UK were unaware about his confinement and thus they also suffered severe mental torture.