The division bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) has deferred the hearing of a constitution petition filed by Digitonics Lab, a software developing company. The court directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials to submit their reply till February 8.
The bench, headed by Justice Naematullah Phalpoto, was informed that the FIA had not yet received a copy of the petition, following which the court directed the petitioner to submit copies of the petition to the FIA and other respondents.
Meanwhile, the court also dismissed the verbal request of the petitioner’s advocate to re-open the building of Digitonics Lab located at main Shahrah-e-Faisal road.
On January 10, the FIA officials sealed the building of the software house after raiding its offices. According to the lawyer, more than 2,500 to 3,000 employees were working in this software company and now they are jobless.
Earlier, the court issued notices to a federal law officer and the Sindh advocate general regarding the software company’s petition against the FIA’s inquiry and raid at its office.
The petitioner’s counsel stated that the FIA conducted an illegal raid at the office of the company on the basis of false and fabricated complaints without any lawful warrants.
The SHC was told that the FIA later registered a case against the company on forgery, money laundering and other charges under the Prevention of the Electronic Crimes Act. The counsel submitted that under the guise of investigation, the FIA had subjected the company employees to harassment and their equipment had been unlawfully taken without the due legal process, making it impossible for the petitioner to carry out its lawful business.
The SHC was requested to register the FIA inquiry, on the basis of false complaints, as unlawful and in violation of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. The petitioner also sought a court direction to restrain the FIA from harassing its employees and staff.
