LAHORE, Aug 19: The fate of a 27-year-old Pakistani woman reportedly languishing in a Saudi prison remains uncertain as repeated requests over the past five months by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia seeking information on the status of the woman have failed to generate any response.

Gulzar Asgher, wife of Muhammad Rauf, was reportedly arrested on the complaint of her father-in-law, Allah Ditta, on charges of committing adultery. Allah Ditta has allegedly demanded one million rupees from her parents for withdrawing the charges and sending her back to Pakistan.

In his letter to the HRCP, AGHS and Pakistan consulate general in Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Asghar, father of the girl, has stated that ever since her marriage in 1998, Gulzar had been subjected to torture by her in-laws. Gulzar, he says, left for Medina with her husband shortly after marriage but her in-laws never allowed her to contact her parents in Pakistan. “I got the news of the birth of my first grandchild through some relatives who met Gulzar’s in-laws in Medina”.

In late 2001, Mr Asgher says, a relative who returned to Saudi Arabia informed him about the inhumane treatment Gulzar was being subjected to by her husband and in-laws. After several attempts, he said, I succeeded in contacting my daughter’s father-in-law, Haji Allah Ditta, and begged him to send my daughter back to Pakistan, only to be told that Gulzar had been sent to prison on March 18, on charges of adultery.

He (Allah Ditta) said Gulzar would be sent back to Pakistan if I paid them an amount of one million rupees which, according to her in-laws, was spent on the marriage and Gulzar’s living in Medina.

Shortly, after learning about the arrest of his daughter, Asghar tried to confirm the same but was unable to verify the arrest and contacted the HRCP for help.

The HRCP and AGHS Legal Aid Cell have, since April, wrote letters to the Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan and Community Welfare Offices at Pakistan Embassy in Saudi Arabia seeking information on the reported detention of Gulzar Asghar at the Sharta Atique Jail in Medina on charges of Zina. But none cared to reply let alone provide information regarding Ms Asgher.

The sole response to the HRCP and AGHS efforts has been from Minister for Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education Dr Attiya Anayatullah who forwarded the information to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq for necessary action.

Two HRCP letters to Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Assad Durrani on April 26 and to the director, welfare office, Consulate General of Pakistan in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on April 9, had not been responded.

It’s highly unfortunate, says Rehmah Sufi of the AGHS Legal Aid Cell, that none of the officials of the Pakistani or the Saudi government has even cared to acknowledge the receipt of the letters from the HRCP or the AGHS seeking information about Gulzar. The AGHS, she said, has also contacted the Amnesty International for help in ascertaining the facts regarding the reported arrest of Gulzar, mother of two and expected again, and her detention at the Sharta Atique Jail. —Azmat Abbas