Islamabad Court has issued arrest warrants for the Bank Manager of Faisal Bank G-6 Islamabad Branch which is the recent most twist in the fascinating case of a World Bank employee who has managed to successfully evade the courts of the United Kingdom as well as the courts of Pakistan for over a decade, TLTP has learnt.
On December 16, 2024 the Court of His Honor Judge Hafeez Ahmed issued bailable arrest warrants for the Manager of Faisal Bank G-6 Manager in a case titled Azfar Hasnain and Another versus Namoos Zaheer. A copy of the court-issued Warrants as well as the relevant case file is available with TLTP.
The fascinating story of this case started in 2013 when Azfar Hasnain and his wife, both of them retirees filed a case against their former tenant Ms Namoos Zaheer in the County Courts of Central London. They claimed that that Namoos had failed to pay the rent which was due to them.
In 2014, after a trial which went for two consecutive days, the County Court ruled partially in favor of the Plaintiffs and partially in favor of the Defendant. In all, Namoos was directed to pay the retirees a title of £28760. She was also directed to pay all the lawyers’ fee and costs incurred by the other side in pursuing the case.
While she did not appeal the decision, she also did not comply. Instead, she simply fled the jurisdiction and came to Pakistan. According to the reported verdict 2016 CLC 1425 Islamabad, authored by Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzaib, it was held that the plaintiff defended an action brought against her in a foreign court, she could not take exception to that jurisdiction when the case was decided against her. However, the court made it clear saying that a trial court is always empowered to entertain an application under Order 7 Rule 10 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).
Left with no other options, the plaintiffs sent Namoos a Legal Notice seeking recovery of their money through their lawyer. And when no overture for settlement was made, they filed a Civil Suit for Enforcement of Foreign Judgement under Section 13 of the CPC, a rarely utilized provision for enforcement of decrees by lower courts of foreign countries.
Namoos vehemently contested this suit for 07 years and systematically delayed the case but eventually lost. The Civil Court of Islamabad upheld the British Court’s judgment in 2020. Namoos appealed to the High Court and lost there too . In a detailed judgment which has been reported as PLD 2023 Islamabad 2020, a divisional bench of the High Court presided by Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, the British judgment was upheld. Namoos was directed to pay the costs as well. Undeterred, Namoos appealed to the Supreme Court where her CPLA remains pending. The top court has not suspended the judgments of the Courts below.
Therefore, in the meantime, execution proceedings have started against her. Since she did not appear before the civil courts of Islamabad to satisfy their judgment, initially, arrest warrants were issued against her. However, she managed to evade the same. Later, her bankers failed to comply order of the court. Continuous non compliance of execution court orders was found as Namoos’ banker refused to en-cash the guarantee. So now the civil court has issued warrants for her bank’s manager.
Namoos Zaheer has earned the distinction of being one of the very few civil defendants who has managed to stall the courts of both Pakistan and the United Kingdom for over a decade. Her story of defiance (or reliance, depending on how one sees it) is documented in two reported judgments of the Islamabad High Court, both of which judgments represent cutting edge jurisprudence.
Her case may also be seen as highlighting the plight of Pakistani plaintiffs who are trying to recover money decreed in their favor by a British Court. And above all its shows the helplessness of the British as well as Pakistani civil justice system in the face of a globe-trotting World Bank employee who keeps shifting jurisdictions whenever the law catches up to her.
TLTP contacted the official of World Bank Islamabad Pakistan and Namoos Zaheer on 19 December 24 and 23 December 24 respectively but received no response till filing of this report.
