The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday issued notices to Sindh AG, home secretary and chief secretary for October 2, 2007 on Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's petition who challenged ban on his entry in Sindh imposed by the Sindh government.
The matter was taken up by the SHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab. The PTI chief was not allowed to enter Karachi by the provincial government when he planned to visit Karachi on September 12 to lead a PTI procession.
Filing petition through Advocate Sheikh Usmani and Advocate Iqbal, Imran Khan submitted that the Sindh home secretary and chief secretary with ulterior motives to keep him out of Karachi and with a view to thwarting his program, imposed Section 144 CrPC and banned his entry in Karachi on September 11, 2007.
Challenging the ban order, he stated restriction to enter in Sindh was against fundamental rights and violation of Article 15, which permit every citizen to move freely throughout Pakistan.
It said the government had no ground for believing presence of Imran Khan in Sindh would disturb peace in Karachi. The Order was mala fide and tainted with malice as it was issued following entire campaign of offensive 'wall chalking' against him by a party in ruling coalition of the Sindh government. It was thus not an order under MPO, but motivated by political agenda of certain party and thus not enforceable.
Naming the Sindh home secretary and the chief secretary as respondents, he prayed to declare order banning his entry in Sindh as illegal and of no legal effect.