Day: July 23, 2008

District and Sessions Judge (Central) Soofia Latif has directed the Home Department to form a police team for the recovery of two girls allegedly kidnapped by their uncle.

The court also ordered for recovering the two girls within 10 days and producing them before the court. Zainab and Faiza were allegedly kidnapped by their uncle Shah Tareen who took them to Kaladhaka.Shah Tareen had earlier married Jannat against the will of her parents, which created a dispute among the two tribes. A Jirga was set up which gave a “reconciliatory” decision, asking him to hand over two girls to the aggrieved party as compensation. The mother of the girls Yasmeen filed an application in the court for the recovery of her daughters.
Source: The News
Date:7/23/2008

KARACHI: Founder President of Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Career Women of Pakistan (AWECWOP), Farzana Bashir, has said that the trade policy for 2008-09 focused more on imports rather than exports and it lacks women-specific incentives, especially promotion of women-owned SMEs and cottage industries.

In a press statement, she added that emphasis is more on facilitating structural initiatives that never get implemented. Bashir further said that there is a need to provide special incentives to enterprises that employ at least 30 per cent women.

She stated that a majority of units in the textile value-added sector have a large number of women employees and that even pharmaceutical industries employ women in substantial numbers. She voiced that the textile value-added sector must be encouraged and its contribution to the economy accepted.

Bashir, moreover, said that special allocation must be made for vocational training and skills development of women workers so that women could also perform in other sectors. She said that TDAP must endeavor to organise and sponsor single-country women entrepreneur’s exhibitions in foreign countries so that these women get international exposure and experience.

She lamented the fact that no specific consideration has been envisaged for the export of services undertaken by career-oriented women in the fields of information technology, engineering, horticulture, education, and health services. She said that there is an abundance of talent among women professionals in Pakistan and this should be encouraged and promoted.
Source: The News
Date:7/23/2008

A woman who was killed on Monday afternoon in a brutal train accident has been identified.

Her name is Khalida Shamim, and is the wife of a senior Accounts Officer in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). According to the in-charge of the Railway Police, Drigh Road kiosk, Irshad Baig said that even though it seemed she had tried to kill herself, the family gave information and further investigation, pointed to other facts.

A resident of Mehmoodabad, Khalida had gone to meet some relatives who lived near Baloch Colony, and for this she had to cross the railway tracks, Baig told The News. He said when she was returning, there were two trains coming from opposite directions, one from Lahore, and one going out of Karachi. “She was apparently crossing the line carelessly, and someone had shouted out to her to get off the track. When she did, she tripped and fell over the stones, the train could not stop in time, and she died a brutal death,” said Baig.

According to the information, the woman’s face was completely skinned off because of the powerful impact of the train, and her head was completely severed. She was kept in the Edhi morgue, till her relatives found out through electronic media channels that a woman had been found.

Inspector Irshad says that according to official records around 28 people have been killed by train accidents in the past seven months. “These are the people whose bodies we have found. Some others who have died and not been taken by the Edhi or Chhipa workers, instead their relatives have taken them home before we could reach the spot, so we have not counted those bodies for the record,” he said.

According to Inspector Irshad, train accidents were not like road accidents. “People are liable to get upto six months of prison, if they get on the tracks. This is violation of law, and they can receive penalty under Section 122 CrPc. Th CDGK has not built any bridges either to help people cross, but sometimes it is the public which does not bother to be careful with their own lives.”
Source: The News
Date:7/23/2008

RAWALPINDI, July 22: An additional district and sessions judge here on Tuesday handed down life imprisonment to man for stabbing his wife to death with a hoe over a domestic dispute in 2006.

Judge Mohammad Azam Ali sentenced Shafiqur Rehman, 50, to life imprisonment for killing his wife, Abida Bibi, in a village in the limits of Murree police on October 2, 2006.

The convict will also have to pay Rs100,000 as fine and in case of nonpayment of the money, he will have to undergo six months extra imprisonment.

Rehman developed differences with his wife over some domestic issue, and when he could not resolved them he killed Abida, 43, with a hoe in his house at Sahar Bagla village.

Meanwhile, Additional District and Sessions Judge Masroor Zaman issued warrants for the arrest of SHO Pirwadhai for not appearing in a drug case as a witness despite the repeated court summons.

The judge also directed the police to arrest the SHO and produce him in court on the next hearing date.

The police official had not been appearing in the drug case against an accused, Sadiq, thus delaying the trail.
Source: dawn
Date:7/23/2008

PESHAWAR, July 22: A woman has moved the Peshawar High Court seeking custody of her US nationality holder minor daughter from her former husband, stating that the girl was fraudulently transported to Pakistan from the US.

The woman, Ms Shaista Manzoor Tamana, has filed a habeas corpus petition before the high court alleging that her daughter, Mayra Iman, aged about two-and-a-half years, was in illegal confinement. The petitioner has also prayed the court to put the names of her mother-in-law, husband and sister-in-law on the Exit Control List as her mother-in-law was having Canadian nationality and she might take away the child.

The petitioner claimed that she had moved to USA along with her parents around 16 years ago, but unlike her parents she was not an American nationality holder. She claimed that her former husband, Rehan Yousaf of Peshawar, had married her on April 26, 2003, presuming that she was an American nationality holder.

In the petition, filed through advocate Nasrun Minallah, the petitioner stated that when her husband came to know that she was not having American nationality he forced them that his paper-marriage should be arranged with her mother, Naseem Manzoor. She stated that on May 5, 2006, he entered into a paper-marriage with her mother. The petitioner stated that on Oct 15, 2005, she gave birth to a female child in New York and she was named Mayra Iman.

The petitioner stated that in the meantime she was arrested in connection with ticketing business of her parents on charges of committing fraud and was released on parole in 2005. She claimed that in 2006 she was again arrested on same charges and was convicted. However, she was released in Aug 2007 and was deported to Pakistan on March 29, 2008.

The woman claimed that according to rules her husband and mother had to appear before the concerned officials on June 20, 2008, five years after their paper-marriage, so that he could be awarded nationality. However, as her mother had come to Pakistan, therefore, she could not turn up for that meeting.

She claimed that she had granted custody of her daughter to her sister when she was in prison. Later on, she added that she granted temporary custody of the child to her husband but he fraudulently removed the child to Pakistan. She added that when she returned to Pakistan her husband was making excuses as he did not want to settle here. She added that when her husband realised that her mother would not appear with him for the interview regarding his citizenship, he divorced the petitioner on June 19.
Source: dawn
Date:7/23/2008