The Sindh High Court issued notices to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) and others on petitions filed by former president and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Dr Arif Alvi and his spouse against the blocking of their bank accounts.
Dr Arif Alvi and his wife Samina Alvi submitted in their petitions that their bank accounts have been blocked by private banks on directions of the NCCIA.
Their counsel Ali Tahir submitted that the NCCIA initiated baseless inquiries against Dr Arif Alvi under sections 298 and 298-A of the PPC pertaining to blasphemy-related allegations.
He submitted that respondent agency officials issued letters to banks where the petitioner and his family members were holding bank accounts and asked them to block their accounts.
He said that the petitioner and his family members were unable to access personal and lawful fund due to arbitrary and unlawful directives of the NCCIA issued to the private banks.
The counsel submitted that neither the FIA Act nor the anti-money laundering act confers any authority on the NCCIA to unilaterally freeze or block the accounts of the petitioners without observing any due process of the law and legal procedure.
He said that the private banks and the NCCIA offered no opportunity of hearing to the petitioners with regard to justifying their action. The counsel said that the absence of procedural safeguards in such serious matter was not only alarming but underscored the respondent agency’s disregard for law and the constitutional governance.
The court was requested to declare the blocking of the bank accounts of the petitioners unlawful and to suspend the impugned directives till a decision was made on the petitions.
SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after preliminary hearing of the petitions issued notices to the federal law officers, NCCIA and others and called their comments on June 5.
