SHCBA for inquiry into torture of woman at Malir Court
President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, on Tuesday called for a fair and impartial inquiry into the attack on a woman, identified as PTI activist Laila Parveen, and her compatriots by black coats on the premises of Malir courts on Monday.
According to the victim, she and her brother, Mushtaq Iqbal Khan, were present at the court with regards to a dishonoured cheque case lodged against her former husband, advocate Ali Hasnain. In a video that was uploaded to social media following the mob attack, Parveen related that her ex-husband had borrowed Rs. 6.5 million from her brother and gave him a cheque which bounced when they approached the bank.
She said that she lodged a case with the SITE-Superhighway police and came to court to attend a hearing. There, Hasnain and his colleagues, advocates Shahzad Saeed and Jalbani, assaulted the siblings after an exchange of harsh words.
In a letter, Barrister Ahmed acknowledged he had been told of an alternative version of events, in which the violence had been initiated by Laila Parveen’s men and her brother, and that there were also claims that Ali Hasnain had been beaten up while in police lockup on the behest of his former wife.
However, Barrister Ahmed contended that an act of aggression on Parveen’s side in no way justified the mob reaction as seen in videos of the attack circulating on social media.
AJK to give voting rights to overseas Kashmiris
In a Tuesday meeting of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet, presided over Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, it was decided to extend voting rights to overseas Kashmiris. The cabinet called for the drafting of legislation that will allow around one million Kashmiris in different countries will be able to vote from abroad.
UN Special Rapporteur concerned over Kashmiri activist’s arrest
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, on Monday, expressed deep concern over the arrest of Kashmiri rights activist Khurram Parvez by the India’s federal National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
Those charged under the law may be detained for up to six months without trial.
In a tweet, Lawlor urged that Parvez is a human rights defender, not a terrorist.