ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the petition by the Indus Motors chief seeking deletion of three names, including the Toyota company chairman, from the suit filed by Dr Sher Afgan, MNA, for damages.

The lawmaker has alleged that his young son had died because of a defective system installed in his car. The top management of Indus Motors had moved the apex court for the deletion of three names from the suit, stating that implication of the head of the Japanese automobile giant as one of the respondents would have negative impact on investment climate in the country.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar declined the relief and asked the petitioners to approach the civil court.

Dr Sher Afgan, parliamentary leader of the PPP Patriots, whose young son Behram Khan died in a road accident on Nov 22, 2002, is fighting a legal battle with the Japanese automobile giant for allegedly installing a defective supplemental restraint airbag system in his son's car.

Islamabad police had included the names of the Japanese owner of the automobile company and its two officers in Pakistan. Dr Sher Afgan in his defence said his son had purchased a special car model costing Rs1,50,000, more expensive than the other ordinary type.

The car was equipped with the airbag system to provide complete protection to the person driving the vehicle. He said examination by the motor vehicle examiner Islamabad revealed that the protective system had completely failed to function at the time of accident, which resulted into the death of his son. This failure was contrary to the assurance and guarantee given by the company, he said.

The MNA claimed that the death was the result of negligence, cheating and fraud on the part of the respondent. The respondents filed a concise statement in the Supreme Court, saying that the airbag system, installed in the car of the petitioner's son, was typical of the airbags and the "same was not intended to deploy in all cases. It provides only further and not the complete protection," it said.

The same bench also disposed of a similar petition filed by Dr Sher Afgan against the decision of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi, in which it had ordered the deletion of two sections in the FIR, Section 322 and 420 PPC.

The court asked Dr Sher Afgan to avail the intra-court appeal remedy which was available to him. Senior advocate Khalid Anwar, advocate Qadir Hussain Sayeed and advocate Nadeem Hassan appeared on behalf of Indus Motors.

Qadir Hussain Sayeed, senior advocate, was representing Ali S. Habib, Indus Motors chairman, and Mazhar Walji, company chief executive. Advocate Masoodur Rehman Mirza and Chaudhry Mushtaq were representing Dr Sher Afgan.