LAHORE, April 23: Rustam Fateh Ali Khan, a prominent Patiala Gharana vocalist, said on Tuesday he was being harassed and threats had been made to his life.

Rustam told Dawn he and his father-in-law, Sohail Riaz, had a partnership with Pervez Hashmi, Abbas Shafi and Dr Abdur Razzaq, owners of the Century Tower computer market, at Chowk.

Over recent years, Rustam said, differences had surfaced between the partners and they now stood divided into two groups. One of the groups, he said, comprised him and his father-in-law and the other, the remaining three partners. Once the other side blocked his access to project accounts, he said, a case was filed before a civil court. Several cases, he said, were now pending before various courts.

Finding no way to win the cases, Rustam alleged, the three partners had taken to criminal tactics to exclude him from the project and to force him to withdraw the cases. He alleged that they were using a property dealer, one Haji Munir to harass him. “I and my family are constantly receiving threats to life,” he said.

He alleged that the police were not entertaining his complaints against his partners although four applications filed by him had been referred by the Lahore DIG and SSP to those concerned. Instead, he said, he had been implicated in a fraud case. He claimed that the police were favouring his partners on account of their links to senior police officers and the provincial administration.

Rustam said four people had recently ransacked the booking office at Kalima Chowk. “I am also receiving anonymous calls hurling murder threats.” In case of an untoward happening, he said, the property dealer and his partners would be responsible.

Abbas Shafi, one of the three partners, claimed that Rustam was to obstruct the project. He said Rustam and his father in law were excluded from project management after detection of some fraudulent transactions two years ago.

The Gulberg ASP was not available for comments.