January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

QUETTA, Jan 29: Police have registered a case against Professor Naila Qadri and some others for allegedly shifting women and children to Darul Aman from an Edhi Home, a police spokesman said.

The case, according the police, was registered on the basis of an FIR sent by the in-charge of Edhi Centre Quetta regarding the incident.

Sources said that on Jan 26, the in-charge informed police that Ms Naila, director of an NGO ‘Gidan’, wanted to shift helpless women to Darul Aman from an Edhi Home.

A spokesman for the Edhi head office said that Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi had forgiven all those involved in the shifting of women and asked the in-charge of his Quetta centre to withdraw the FIR.

According to a statement issued by the welfare centre, Maulana Edhi said that registering FIRs or cases is not a modus operandi of the Edhi Foundation as it causes hurdles in its mission.

He expressed the hope that the federal and provincial governments would make sure that in future such incidents should not be occurred.

The in-charge of Edhi Centre Quetta, Naeem Ahmed, told this reporter that a letter on the directives of Maulana Edhi had been sent to Balochistan IGP Dr Shoaib Suddle, requesting him to withdraw the case against the professor and others.

The other day, 10 helpless women along with some children were shifted to Darul Aman on the orders of a court. The police had produced them before the court, and the women told the court that they wanted to live in Darul Aman.

However, four women, who informed the court that they wanted to live in Edhi Home, were handed over to the Edhi Centre Quetta along with nine children.

Professor Naila Qadri had pleaded before the court she was receiving messages of women living in the Edhi Home for a long time, asking her to help shift them to some other place.

Ms Naila said she had visited the Edhi Home, with a group of journalists, on the requests of the women, who informed the mediamen about their problems.

The professor said that those women also recorded their statements with police that they were facing many problems in the Edhi Home, therefore they had asked for shifting to some other safe place.

CLARIFICATION: Vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Balochistan Chapter, Malik Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani, has clarified that the commission has nothing to do with the incident took place in the Edhi Home.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, he said that Maulana Edhi had informed him that some NGOs were threatening him and interfering in the working of Edhi Centre for a long time.