SHC seeks reply from FIA over Jibran Nasir’s plea against 'unlawful' off-loading at Karachi airport

• Nasir, Pasha were off-loaded from Dubai-bound flight on June 27.
• They pray that they were given no-show fine of $240 each. 
• High court seeks response from authorities on August 17.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) sought a reply from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over social activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir and his wife Mansha Pasha’s plea against their “unlawful” off-loading from a Dubai-bound flight on June 27, The News reported on Wednesday.

The petition had prayed to the court that Nasir and Pasha had cleared the immigration however, they were stopped from travelling by the authorities without giving any reason.

A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, after the preliminary hearing of the petitions, issued notices to the FIA and other respondents and called for their response on August 17.

“On 27th June my wife and I were scheduled to travel to Dubai via Emirates EK601 to visit my Family for Eid and we were scheduled to return to Karachi on 5th July," Nasir said social media platform X

"We checked in our luggage, got boarding passes, cleared immigration and got the exit stamps but while approaching the Departure Lounge we were called by an FIA official who appeared to be receiving instructions from someone on his phone,” he said.

The petition had further prayed that Nasir and Pasha were given a no-show fine of $240 each because of “illegal and unconstitutional actions of the FIA”.

They said prima facie the respondents' act to restrain them from leaving the country was unwarranted and an attempt to harass them and their family members.

Furthermore, they prayed that they were offloaded without assigning any valid reason, order, or being served with a copy of any notice pertaining to placing their names on the Exit Control List (ECL). 

They submitted that the FIA immigration personnel affixed the offloaded stamp on their passports.

The SHC was requested to declare the acts of the FIA and other respondents, who restrained the petitioners from travelling abroad, illegal and to restrain them from taking such actions in the future.

The petitioners had sought an inquiry against FIA employees who unlawfully restrained them without any reasonable cause or justification. They also prayed for issuing a letter in the names of petitioners, admitting that their offloading from the flight was unlawful.