UK judicial team to visit AJK

Published January 9, 2005

MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 8: A five-member delegation of British judicial and diplomatic officials will visit the AJK capital next week to discuss the proposed UK-Pakistan judicial protocol on 'child abduction'.

The delegation comprises Mr Justice Peter Singer, president of the family division, court of appeals, England and Wales, Ms Ann Marie Hutchinson, OBE, Ms Rebekah Horder, Foreign and Commonwealth Officer, Jon Turner, head of protection unit, British High Commission Islamabad and Ghazala Shah, consular assistance officer in Islamabad.

The delegation is scheduled to call on the AJK High Court chief justice, AJK secretary for law, justice and parliamentary affairs and some other government functionaries during its visit, likely to begin on Wednesday.

Britain is home to nearly 500,000 Kashmiris, most of them from southern areas of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

British government's majorconcerns are the alleged forced marriages and abduction of British born children by their Pakistani and Kashmiri fathers after family disputes.

An AJK law department official said that it was a matter of difference of interpretation and the matter cannot be termed child abductions but only disputes over guardianship.

"Such problems are not Kashmir-specific," he said.

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