KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday extended its earlier restr­aining order not to withdraw a notification issued by the home department declaring Pakistan Tehr­eek-i-Insaf leader Syed Firdous Shamim Naqvi’s house a sub-jail till Jan 16.

The SHC also directed the Anti-Corruption Estab­li­shment (ACE) Sindh to file its comments by next hearing and warned that in case of non-compliance the chairman of ACE will be summoned.

Last month, the PTI leader through his lawyer Jibran Nasir moved the SHC and contended that on account of PTI leader’s health conditions he was pre­s­ently confined to his house, which was declared a sub-jail through a notification issued on June 23 by home department on the directive of trial court order.

However, the petitioner submitted that since he had filed nomination papers for the upcoming general elections, the respondents were continuously harassing him and officials of ACE raided his house and threatened to withdraw his nomination papers. Otherwise, the notification about sub-jail will be withdrawn and he will be shifted to jail, he added.

The lawyer argued that upon the refusal of petitioner, the notification was withdrawn on Dec 23 without assigning any reasons or seeking permission from the court of competent jurisdiction.

On Dec 26, the SHC had suspended an impugned noti­fi­cation about withdra­wal of sub-jail status and had also restrained the res­p­o­ndents from taking any adverse action against the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2024