September 21, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 08, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 20: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday fixed October 23 for resolving the child custody case between a Malaysian woman and her Pakistani husband.

The court directed Fazle Azeem to appear along with his nine-month-old son Arman Khan on the next date.

The man hailing from Buner district said that when he came to know that the high court had issued summons for him he appeared before the police station concerned in Buner.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem directed the court’s member inspection team, Azhar Khan, to convey to the deputy high commission of Malaysia in Islamabad that the child had been traced.

The bench directed that the deputy high commission should also inform the woman, Siti Nazeera, about the next date of hearing and if she was willing she should appear on the next date.

During the last hearing the court had directed the Buner district police officer to trace the man and the child and to produce them in the court.

On Thursday, the court directed the police to keep an eye on the man and to ensure that he appeared in the court along with the child on the next date of hearing.

The chief justice had converted into a petition the request of the woman published in a Malaysian newspaper alleging that her husband, Fazal Azeem, had forcibly kept their son with him and had not been handing him over to her.

Under the Islamic law a woman is entitled to keep her child if he or she is below seven years of age.

Father of Fazle Azeem, Fazle Ahad, had informed the court during the last hearing that his son had disappeared along with his grandson.

Fazle Ahad had levelled allegations against his daughter-in-law and her family in Kual Lumpur and stated that they were anti-social elements.

He said that a few years ago his son had gone to Malaysia where he married the woman.

He said that the woman did not belong to a good family and soon they asking to pay them $20,000 otherwise they would chop a hand of his son, Fazle Azeem.

He said that later the woman came to Pakistan with his son.

“I told her that we have our own culture and tradition and she should wear a burqa here over which she got annoyed,” Mr Ahad said.