KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has summoned the Senior Superintendent of Police, Naseerabad, regarding progress on efforts for recovery of allegedly kidnapped right activist Seengar Noonari.

A two-judge bench also directed the home secretary, provincial police chief, SHO of Naseerabad and others to file their respective replies to the petition filed by Mr Noonari’s wife.

Fozia Noonari in her petition alleged that her husband was taken away from their home in Naseerabad last month.

She stated that they were asleep in their home on the night between June 25 and 26 when, at around 3am, about 15-20 people, some of them wearing security personnel’s uniforms, forcibly entered the house by breaking open the main door with weapons and also fired shots “to spread terror”.

She stated that the intruders caught hold of Seengar and his younger brother and took two mobile phones, an internet device, a USB and some books and papers in their custody.

According to the petitioner, the intruders wearing uniforms blindfolded Mr Noonari, an Awami Workers Party (AWP) activist, and took him away along with the seized material. His brother was, however, left at home.

The petitioner’s lawyer said that Ms Noonari had submitted an application regarding her husband’s abduction at the Naseerabad police station but without any response.

The petitioner asked the court to order the federal and provincial respondents and officials working under them to produce the activist in court and order his immediate release.

During the last hearing of the case, the SHC had issued notices to the respondents, including the Sindh IG, Rangers director general and Naseerabad SHO and other respondents directing them to submit their respective replies.

When the matter came up, a special public prosecutor for the Rangers informed the bench that an inquiry was conducted at all stations of the paramilitary force but the petitioner’s husband was not found at any of them.

A video of Fozia Noonari had gone viral on the social media last month.

According to Fozia, she and her husband are university graduates and have been active in politics since 1998. They run a study circle in Naseerabad and organise different cultural and political activities.

Seengar is AWP’s labour secretary of of its national committee while Fozia is finance secretary of the party’s women’s wing, the Women Democratic Front.

Fozia said her husband had also remained the chairman of the ‘Shehri Ittehad’ in Naseerabad highlighting civic issues and was once elected a councillor. He had also contested on the seat for the provincial assembly from Naseerabad.

Fozia demanded that if her husband had committed any crime, he should be produced in court.

Status quo on anti-corruption inquiry ordered

The Sindh High Court has ordered the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) to maintain status quo in respect of an inquiry pertaining to the construction of a high-rise building in a Drigh road area.

Plaintiff Haneef Yousuf had challenged the ACE inquiry regarding a two-acre open commercial-cum-residential land in the area.

His counsel submitted that his client had purchased the land in question from the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association and that the land was regularised in March 2010.

He submitted that plaintiff started construction on the suit property after completion of all legal and codal formalities strictly in accordance with law and also obtained an approved construction plan. However, the counsel said, the ACE initiated an inquiry against revenue department and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in relation to the suit property which was already closed in 2018.

The bench was informed that the ACE had again initiated inquiry on the subject property and issued notices to the plaintiff and others, adding that the impugned notices were mala fide as the ACE had already dropped the earlier inquiry proceedings after assigning proper reason and there was no basis or justification for reopening of past and closed transactions.

A single bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, after preliminary hearing issued notices to ACE, advocate general of Sindh and others and called their comments.

In the meantime, the bench directed the parties and ACE to maintain status quo on the subject inquiry proceedings.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd , 2021