Day: February 16, 2009

Karachi: A couple was shot dead by their neighbour over a dispute in Darakhshan police limits, while a gangster was shot dead in the Baghdadi police area.

Forty-year-old Bilal and his wife, 32-year-old Ghazala, were shot dead inside their flat (A-112) situated at Street-10, Khayaban-e-Badar, Phase-V, DHA, allegedly by their neighbour, Misbah, and her cousin Omer. A case has been registered and Misbah has been arrested.

The residents and the police said that Ghazala had a dispute with Misbah on Saturday night and they had also scuffled with each other. Later, Ghazala’s husband Bilal along with other residents reached there and settled the matter.

On early Sunday morning morning, Misbah called her cousin Omer who came at her flat carrying his TT pistol. He went straight to Bilal’s house, broke open the door and shot at Bilal and Ghazala before fleeing. Bilal died on the spot, while Ghazala succumbed to her injuries at a hospital. Soon after the incident, the residents got hold of Misbah and handed her over to the police.

Bilal worked at a garment firm at a prestigious position and the couple hailed from Faisalabad. The police registered a case against Misbah and her cousin Omer on the complaint of Bilal’s friend Shahzada Khurram. Further investigation is under way.
Source: The News
Date:2/16/2009

By Zofeen T. Ebrahim

KARACHI, Feb 15: Looking at Urooj Akbar and Saira Liaquat (you cannot help but flinch), one feels Maria Shah is better off dead. Unlike Maria, all three are survivors of acid/kerosene attacks. None of them have received even an iota of justice, while maybe Saira has received a little consolation — her attacker has been put behind bars.

Aslam Sanjrani, a rickshaw driver, threw acid on the 25-year old Maria Shah, who was a lady health worker from Shikarpur, for spurning his marriage proposal.

Shahnaz Bokhari of the Islamabad-based Progressive Women’s Association, who began working for acid and burn victims in 1994, calls this “plain murder”. Dr Waqar Ansari, head of the intensive care unit (ICU) of the burns ward at the Civil Hospital, supports the opinion: “These are never accidental.” He is looking after three such cases of acid attacks.

Anila Ansari, a legal expert with the Karachi Women Prisoners’ Welfare Society, has no doubt that Ms Shah’s attacker can be tried for attempted murder under Section 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code, where the punishment is 10 years, and also Section 302 of the PPC since Maria died. The maximum punishment is life imprisonment.

The Sindh health minister had stressed the need for more burns centres.

“Nobody says they want to halt this barbarism. Instead they want more such centres,” says Dr Waqar Ansari laconically.

Currently, there is only one public sector burns centre in Pakistan at the Civil Hospital, Karachi. The country still does not have a law that criminalises acid attacks. In August 2003, the Punjab Assembly passed legislation that termed an acid attack tantamount to attempted murder.

Perhaps with the Sindh chief minister’s announcement of the paltry sum of Rs100,000 as compensation to the victim’s family, the conscience of many will be cleansed and guilt-free. For others, another file of an acid attack victim has been conveniently closed.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/16/2009

NEW YORK, Feb 15: A Pakistani-American businessman was arrested in Orchard park town in Buffalo (New York) after he killed his wife and then walked to the police station to report her death.

Muzzamil Hasan, owner and operator of Bridges TV network, which was launched in 2004 to portray Muslims in a more positive light, was charged with killing his wife Aasiya, 37, during a domestic dispute.

Ms Aasiya Hasan had filed for divorce and obtained an order of protection against Hasan two weeks ago, police said.

“He (Muzzamil Hasan) came to the police station at 6:20 pm [Thursday] and told us that she was dead,” Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said.

“She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February],” Benz said.

Mr Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.

Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon.

“Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible,” Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita said on Sunday.

Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned before Village Justice Deborah Chimes and sent to the Erie County Holding Centre.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/16/2009

KASUR, Feb 15: Saddar police registered a case against a midwife for mishandling a delivery case that resulted in the death of a seven-month fetus boy besides putting the mother in a critical condition here on Sunday.

Complainant Naziran Bibi said that her daughter Shamim Bibi became pregnant six years after her marriage. On the completion of seven months, she said she took her daughter to the private clinic of midwife Shakeela Bibi for examination on Diwan Road.

She said the midwife advised immediate delivery and demanded Rs14,000 for the case. During the delivery process, Shakeela mishandled the case and separated an ear and an arm of the baby.

Upon this, the midwife asked the family to rush the patient to the Lahore General Hospital to save the life of the mother.

According to a report, LGH doctors delivered a dead baby boy without an ear and an arm.

On the report of Naziran Bibi, Saddar police have registered a case against the midwife under section 338/C.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/16/2009