PESHAWAR, Aug 4: Dr Hafsa Aman, the Indian woman whose request for Pakistani citizenship has been turned down by the authorities concerned, gave birth to a baby boy on Tuesday.
The woman, who hails from the southern Indian state of Kerala, gave birth at a local hospital in Mardan, some 60km from here. Both the mother and the baby were stated to be in good health and discharged from the hospital same day. Dr Hafsa embraced Islam and married a Pakistani Aman Khan last year.
The family has yet to select a name for the infant. Aman Khan told Dawn that Hafiz Ghulam Rasul, the spiritual leader of his family who lives in Karachi, would name the child.
He added that his wife who was known as Divya Dayanandan before her marriage, also embraced Islam on the hands of Hafiz Ghulam Rasul in Karachi last year. Mr Khan said: "For the last one year or so my entire family has been passing through a trauma due to the unfortunate decision of the interior division and we are not sure what will be the fate of our child."
He said although the government claimed of making peace with India, in fact, it was he and his wife who had been acting as ambassadors of peace as the child was born to an Indian mother and a Pakistani father, who did not care for the tension between the two countries.
"This child is a blessing of Almighty Allah and we believe that with his arrival our agonies might end," said Mrs Nazakat Khan, the mother-in-law of Dr Hafsa. Another Indian woman, Aquila Durrani, who has also been denied Pakistani citizenship, gave birth to a girl few days ago in Mardan. The child is named Ayesha Imtiaz.
Ms Durrani was married to Imtiaz Ahmad of Kaskoorona, Mardan last year. Her father, Abdul Qudoos, was a Pakistani national and received his initial education from the Government High School Katlang (Mardan). He went to Bombay in 1961.
Relatives of Ms Durrani, including her paternal-aunt, still reside in Mardan and her marriage with Imtiaz Ahmad was arranged with their help. Her request for Pakistani citizenship was turned down the interior division, islamabad, in February.
Two separate writ petitions are pending before the Peshawar High Court challenging the denial of citizenship to Dr Hafsa and Ms Durrani. Counsel for Ms Durrani, Amjad Ali, has filed an application in the high court, requesting that the newly born girl may be included as petitioner in the petition pending before the court.
He has also requested for an early hearing of the petition which has been fixed for Aug 19.On the last hearing, the court sought comments in both the cases. The interior division filed comments on the petition of Dr Hafsa, whereas comments in the other case are still awaited.
