March 14, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 24, 1428

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MUZAFFARGARH, March 13: The Muzaffargarh civil judge has delayed the hearing of the Mirwala Women’s Crisis Centre case till March 29. No lawyers appeared before the judge as they were on strike at the call of the Punjab Bar Council to protest a presidential reference against Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, non-functional chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Advocate Jam Mazhar Hussain has filed the case contending that the crisis centre should be set up in the Muzaffargarh city and not in Mirwala, the hometown of alleged rape victim Mukhtar Mai. He said since the law and order situation in Mirwala was not satisfactory, the city district government should set up the centre in the Muzaffargarh city. He said the centre should be set up in the city so that a large number of women could benefit from it.

Talking to Dawn, Mukhtar Mai said that she had not received any summon from the court about the case. She said that she had read in newspapers that she had also been made a respondent in the case. She said she would accept the verdict of court. She said if law and order was not satisfactory in Mirwala, it was the fault of police and the district administration and not of the people of Mirwala. She said if the court disallowed the crisis centre in Mirwala, she would open a special education school in her building that was presently being used for crisis centre.

Mukhtar Mai left for Portugal on Tuesday. She will come back on March 21.

body found: The body of a two-year-old boy who was kidnapped on March 2 from Langar Sirai, 15 kilometres from here, was found from a deserted place on Tuesday.

Raza went missing from the street outside his house while playing, his father Ghulam Hussnain Rana said.

On Tuesday, shepherd Arshad was grazing his goats near Muradabad and saw the leg of a child which was being eaten by crows and other birds. He raised an alarm and people gathered there. When they dug the ground, the body of Raza was recovered.

Police have registered a case against unidentified kidnappers.