police station officials conducted house search on several occasions to harass and intimidate us. In spite of our meagre sources, I challenged all the notices in Sindh High Court and obtained stay orders. In one particular case, the Sindh High Court even gave verdict in our favour, authorising me to claim expenses from the Sindh Government. After failing in these attempts, the regime then implicated me in false cases, one of them under Section 124-A (Sedition) of Criminal Procedure Code in the court of the District Magistrate South, Karachi, and another under 116 Press & Publication Maintenance Order of 1962 in the court of Assistant Commissioner, South Karachi. To avoid arrest under Section 124-A, I had to bail myself prior to arrest. For the whole year of 1980, and for three months of 1981, the undersigned was made to face the miserable drama of being continuously summoned to the court where no hearing would ever be held. Officials in the court only smiled and told me quietly that since it was a fake case, the question of a hearing does not arise, and if I "behave" myself and seek audience with some military official in Islamabad, the files of my cases would be quietly "buried," and the police would not harass me any longer; otherwise my bail would be cancelled at any time. This, sir, is the entire truth and I am making a clean breast of it to you. After the proclamation of the PCO that completely suppressed the Judiciary, we had no other option but to seek shelter elsewhere. The Sindh Government reportedly declared me a fugitive. In the last five years, wild and unfounded allegations against me and my husband have been deliberately spread through a section of the press. In the case of my husband, who began his political career in the Sixties along with the patriotic Sindhi forces, such planted propaganda acquires dreadful proportions when we view it in the light of the treatment meted out in the past to persons like Jam Saqi and Rafiq Saifee. We sincerely wish to believe that your Government has by now asserted its right to take up a fair stand in such cases. It is high time now that your government came up with the initiative and offered assurance against persecution to all Pakistanis stranded in different comers of the world. We hope you would examine this matter urgently and pass on clear instructions to the Pakistani Embassy in India, enabling us to return home and join our kith and kin in Pakistan. Looking forward to an early response. Sincerely, Fahmida Riaz Annual of Urdu Studies, #6 ^2