19 December 2004	Sunday	06 Ziqa'ad 1425

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 18: A Pakistani boy, Moeed Malik, and his parents have been granted political asylum by the Manhattan Judge Sarah Burr accepting his plea that he will face anti-American sentiment if deported.

Moeed Malik, 15, came to US in 1993 with his father, Naveed Malik, and mother, Fozia Naveed.

Elizabeth OuYang had argued that the Malik family had been living here for more than 10 years and Moeed could not read or write Urdu, though he could speak some. "From his dress to his vernacular to his taste in sports and music, he's a very Americanized teenager," the lawyer said.

Naveed Malik said that anti-American sentiment was high in Pakistan, especially since the Iraq war.

In 1993, shortly after the family's arrival in New York, Mr Malik filed for political asylum, claiming a fear of persecution in Pakistan because of his past involvement in an opposition party. The request was denied in 1998, and the family was given a month to leave or face deportation.

By then, Mr Malik's three daughters were also born. Unable to raise money to return to Pakistan within a month, the family stayed, as undocumented immigrants.

In January 2003, he was arrested and detained for three months in a New Jersey jail.

The legal argument that led to the reopening of the case and granting of political asylum succeeded largely on the strength of Moeed's claim that in Pakistan he would face anti-American sentiment as an adolescent with American habits.

US paper, News Day, described Judge Burr's decision as a relatively rare victory for immigrants from an Islamic country the federal government targeted with tightened law enforcement and raids after the destruction of the World Trade Centre.