Family ‘pays price’ for FIA chief’s refusal to budge on probe

Petition claims influential persons harassing DG FIA’s family and relatives after he refused to distort...

KARACHI: A petition has been filed in the Sindh High Court by Manzar Bashir Memon, a high court advocate who is the son of Bashir Memon, Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The petition claims that the family of Bashir Memon is being harassed and persecuted by influential persons in Sindh because the FIA is pursuing investigations against these powerful elements.

As per the petition, the names of the “influential political persons”, their associates, and related businesses have not been listed in the petition, for “reasons of secrecy and pendency of the inquiries that are continuing on the advanced level”.

While listing respondents as the Government of Sindh through the chief secretary, the Sindh home secretary, the Sindh Works and Services secretary, the inspector general of the Sindh Police, and the Sindh Inquiries and Anti-Corruption Establishment through its chairman, the petitioner says that while his father is no stranger to persecution, having been given ‘hardship’ postings and been the target of “fabricated campaigns” to vilify him after “refusing to distort the results of an inquiry that was entrusted to him by [the SHC] with regard to dozens of criminal cases filed against the political rivals of the then-ruling party.”



The petitioner claims that in fear of the negative fallout of the inquiries being conducted by the FIA against them, the influential persons and businesses “started using the resources and machinery of the Government of Sindh to pressurise and coerce Bashir to influence the inquiries so as to exact favourable results” from them.

Leaned on

The petitioner claims that the Sindh government has already pressured Bashir’s daughter-in-law Dr Mahnoor Manzar, who is a Resident Medical Officer (RMO) at Sindh Employees Social Security Institution, his son-in-law Iftikhar Ahmed, who is an executive engineer in the Works and Services Department, Dr Muzammil Memon, a medical officer in the Sindh Department of Health and cousin of the FIA DG, Tajamul Ahmed Memon, an office assistant at the Board of Revenue in Hyderabad and Bashir’s nephew, Hyderabad Regional Transport Authority Secretary Okash Khalid Memon, who is also Bashir’s nephew, and Asif Ahmed Memon, the administrator of Hyderabad Club, who is a cousin of Bashir Ahmed Memon.

The petitioner says that Iftikhar Ahmed was transferred and made OSD after just eight months despite his having a good service record.

Dr Mahnoor claims that she recently came to know from reliable sources that she would soon be transferred to some far-flung area, away from husband, children and the in-laws. She also received information that the cause of her imminent transfer out of Karachi is not her own performance, but the anger of political leaders who want to deliver a message to her father-in-law.

The petitioner has prayed that the SHC direct the respondents to refrain from taking any illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory or coercive actions against him and his family, direct the Anti-corruption Department to refrain from implicating his relatives in false and concocted cases, direct the respondents to stop harassing or causing any physical or professional harm to the petitioner and his family, and direct the Sindh IGP to ensure foolproof security for the petitioner and his family. He has also prayed that the court grant any other relief that it may deem fit and proper under the circumstances, and grant costs.