MULTAN, July 11: Zainab Khatoon, a union council member and a former candidate for the vacant Multan district Nazim slot, has accused an NGO of causing her mental torture for its own vested interest.

She was among the six candidates who were initially vying for the top district slot lying vacant since the resignation of Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi in August, 2002. The by-election is scheduled for July 14.

Khatoon was projected by some non-government organizations as a candidate of the women councillors’ network, stated to be the brainchild of Pattan, also an NGO. She, however, withdrew her candidature a few days ago in favour of another candidate, Pir Riaz Husain Qureshi. At this, a number of NGOs, including Pattan, alleged that Zaineb had been forced to withdraw in favour of Pir Riaz, who is enjoying official patronage for being the candidate of the ruling PML-Q.

Moreover, a Pattan employee and councillor elected against a minority seat of union council No. 52, Pervez Stephan, filed a habeas corpus petition with the court of district and sessions judge on July 10, alleging that Zaineb Khatoon had been missing since July 7 last after having withdrawn her candidature under duress.

The court had directed the Multan DPO to produce her on July 11. Though the police told the court on Friday that they could not produce the woman as they received the (court) order too late on Thursday, Zaineb Khatoon herself appeared in court and denied that she had been kidnapped.

She said that a close relative of her had died and she remained with the bereaved family for three days. She denied that she had withdrawn her candidature under duress and blamed the NGO for damaging her repute. She urged the court to stop the NGO from torturing her mentally through what she said in the court its mean gimmicks. At this, the court dismissed the petition filed for her recovery.

At a press conference, she criticised the Pattan people for their ‘irresponsible’ behaviour. She alleged that the NGO had collected funds from foreign donors to work for women empowerment, but practically it did nothing. She claimed that the NGO people had deserted her after fielding her in the arena for district Nazim election.

Meanwhile, Pattan has denied through a press release that it has ever taken part in political activities and nor it has funds to run the campaign of any candidate.