LAHORE, Feb 20: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the Lahore operations police chief to produce a woman, who had married a man of her choice, on Feb 23.

Nasim Bibi was allegedly kidnapped on Feb 15 when she was coming to attend proceedings of a Hudood case against her.

Mozang SHO told the court that MPA Iftikhar Ahmad of Kasur had assured him of the recovery of the woman. However, the MPA had not honoured his commitment, he said.

The court summoned operations police chief Aftab Cheema to appear within 30 minutes. He reached there in time and sought time to produce the woman. The court did not agree with him that the police were busy in other assignments, and directed him to produce the woman within three days.

Nasim had contracted love marriage with Sajjad Ahmad of Kasur. Her cousin, Karamat Ali, lodged a Hudood case against the couple. The couple moved the LHC for quashment of the FIR.

DISMISSED: The LHC on Tuesday dismissed an appeal against conviction of two kidnappers.

Convicts Usman and Mazhar had filed the appeal. They had kidnapped Nauman and set him free after receiving ransom. An anti-terrorism court had on Feb 10 sentenced them to life imprisonment with Rs200,000 fine each.

They submitted that they had not kidnapped Nauman. Instead, he had fabricated his kidnap story to get money from his parents.

The court did not agree to their contentions and dismissed the appeal.

Hashmi case: An accountability court on Tuesday recorded statements of eight defence witnesses in a reference against PML-N acting president Javed Hashmi.

The National Accountability Bureau has charged Hashmi with accumulating assets disproportionate to known source of his income.

He was also charged with misusing his office as an MNA and a federal minister and accumulating huge assets from 1985 to 1999. The proceedings were adjourned till March 6.