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HYDERABAD, Aug 29: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday quashed an FIR lodged against a girl by her maternal uncle after she told the court that she had embraced Islam and married a Muslim of her own free will.
The division bench comprising Mr Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Mrs Justice Yasmin Abbasey passed the order on a constitutional petition filed by Ayesha Khatoon, the convert’s Islamic name.
Advocate Abdul Wahab Baloch who represented the girl said that her decision to marry Nazeer Ahmed Shar who worked in Mari gas-field after embracing Islam, infuriated her maternal uncle Prem Chand and he lodged a false kidnapping case against her husband at the Hala police station.
Ms Ayesha said that she had told a judicial magistrate in Daharki after embracing Islam at Dargah Pir Abdul Khalid of Bharchundi Sharif that she had married of her own free will.
But, Matiari police were still harassing her and her husband, she said and prayed the court to provide them protection and quash the FIR.
CASE ADJOURNED: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday gave time to the counsels for RBOD-II (Right Bank Outfall Drain) to file para-wise comments on the next day of hearing and directed them to come prepared.
The order was passed on a constitutional petition filed by Mushtaq Ali Shoro and the residents of Kotri taluka. The counsels, Naimatullah Soomro, Hakim Ali Siddiqui and Jagdesh Kumar Mullani undertook to provide advance copies of comments to the petitioner’s counsel, Jhematmal Jethanand so that he could file a rejoinder.
The petitioners who own lands in the 15-kilometre long and a kilometre wide area in Kotri, known as green belt, had citied federal secretary for planning and development, Sindh secretary for irrigation, project director of RBOD, director general of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and deputy district officer as respondents.
They said that the green belt was free from pollution with sweet subsoil water for drinking and added that the respondent DDO acquired lands for the RBOD while work on the excavation had been carried out on the right side of KB Feeder. In 2002-03 the respondents changed the drain’s alignment and threatened to excavate RBOD from the green belt, located on the left side of KB Feeder, to save lands of some influential landlords, which adjoined the original alignment.
They said that in July 2006 the respondents threatened to excavate the RBOD from green belt and repeated their threat again in February this year without notice or acquisition of lands.
They said that the change in alignment would have disastrous impact on the population, agriculture and environment of green belt and render the underground water contaminated.
They said that if the drain was expanded as the respondents had proposed to increase its discharge up to 6,500 cusec it would engulf the entire area of green belt.
They prayed court to declare that the change in alignment and construction of RBOD was without lawful authority and issue permanent injunction against the respondents stopping them from excavating the drain in their area.
The court had earlier stayed the drain’s excavation while hearing a contempt of court application against the executive engineer of RBOD-II, Nasrullah Soomro, months ago.
