NEW YORK, Aug 3: A handicapped Pakistani woman is fighting deportation from Canada to Pakistan after her refugee asylum case was rejected by the Canadian Immigration services.

Bilquees Fatima, 63, fears that she will be executed at the hands of some extremist religious groups in Pakistan.

Fatima, mother of 10 sons, can barely walk, suffers from a heart condition and kidney failure that needs dialysis treatment three times a week, every 48 hours.

Refugee rights activists are stunned at the decision of Canadian courts. Most of them were expecting a modicum of humanity from the Canadian authorities especially after the protest rallies and the wide media coverage the case got in the past two weeks in the Canadian press.

The groups demanded the Canadian Immigration to release Fatima and facilitate her hospitalization for proper and timely medical care.

Canadian immigration authorities have ordered that Fatima and her 17-year-old son, Imran Hussain, to be deported to their native country.

Fatima and her son fled Pakistan, flew to New York in 2001, and crossed over into Canada and tried to avail of an asylum there. The Canadian Immigration Refugee Board (IRB) judge rejected her plea, and later her appeal was also denied.

Since June 25, Fatima, who uses a wheelchair, was removed from hospital  and she and her son have been kept in detention at the Immigration Detention Centre in Laval, while their case goes through the last motions before a deportation date is set.

Several Canadian and Pakistani human Rights groups based in Montreal held rally in support of Fatima and Imran in front of the Citizenship and Immigration Department offices downtown last week.

The Action Committee Against Racial Profiling of Pakistanis delivered an open letter to Immigration Minister Denis Coderre, demanding Fatima and her son be given legal status in Canada on humanitarian grounds.