Tag: pakistani law

  • Signing of declaration of finality of Prophethood (PBUH) for nikkah made mandatory in Punjab

    Signing of declaration of finality of Prophethood (PBUH) for nikkah made mandatory in Punjab

    The Punjab local government and community development department has issued updated Form-II of nikkahnama that makes it mandatory for the bride and groom to sign declaration on the belief of finality of Prophethood (PBUH) with immediate effect.

    The notification directs all the secretaries of union councils to provide the amended nikkahnama containing the declaration of finality of Prophethood (PBUH) to all nikkah registrars.

    The law states, “If any person to whom a licence has been granted under this rule contravenes any of the conditions of such license, he shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, or with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees or with both.”

    If a nikkah registrar does not use the updated Form-II, a disciplinary action will be taken against the concerned UC secretary.

    The Punjab cabinet approved the amendment in March this year. The amendment was approved in the 51st provincial meeting of former chief minister (CM) Punjab Usman Buzdar’s cabinet.

  • ‘The Minor shall be handed over to Sindh Police by Punjab govt’: Salman Sufi

    ‘The Minor shall be handed over to Sindh Police by Punjab govt’: Salman Sufi

    The Punjab government will hand over The Minor to the Sindh Police, Head of Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit Salman Sufi tweeted.

    “As per court decision, The Minor shall be handed over to Sindh Police by the Punjab Government. She shall be taken to the child protection bureau Sindh and later produced in front of Court in Sindh. Punjab child protection bureau & social welfare department stand ready to assist.”

    She will be presented before the Sindh High Court on July 25.

    The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered to transfer The Minor to Karachi. A two-member SHC bench announced its verdict on a petition filed by The Minor’s father Syed Mehdi Ali Kazmi regarding the alleged kidnapping and child marriage of his daughter.

  • ‘Sindh police want to kidnap me, husband’: The Minor

    ‘Sindh police want to kidnap me, husband’: The Minor

    The Minor, an alleged 14-year-old girl, who claims she is 18-years-old, went missing in Karachi in April. She later revealed that she ran away from home to marry Zaheer Ahmed, 21. She has now stated that the couple’s lives are in danger.

    The Minor revealed in a video message that she had eloped with her husband and travelled to Lahore to marry him. “While the Constitution and the law of this country allow me to marry whomever I want and I can live wherever I want under the law, my life is in danger,” she said.

    The Minor went on to say that she is “happy married and lives a quiet life in Lahore,” and that her in-laws treat her well. “People on social media are calling my in-laws part of some gang, but that is a baseless allegation. They are respectable people and are even better than my parents,” she added.

    The Minor also revealed that before eloping, she wrote her parents a letter in which she “clearly stated the reasons for leaving her home.”

    The Minor, who went missing last month was found by the police. Her parents claim that their daughter has been forced into this marriage.

  • Journalist Ayesha accuses musician Ali Noor of sexual harassment, shares screenshots

    Journalist Ayesha accuses musician Ali Noor of sexual harassment, shares screenshots

    Ayesha Binte Rashid has accused singer Ali Noor of sexual harassment. She took to her Instagram handle to share screenshots of an alleged WhatsApp conversation with the singer.

    “You emotionally manipulated me and what happened in the back of my car while driving to the airport was sexual harassment. You’re a sexual harasser and a predator,” she wrote in her message to Ali Noor.

    “Womaniser with a God complex who is all talk yet doesn’t have the proactiveness to break out of his toxic patterns,” one of the messages read.

    Ayesha also shared Ali’s reply to her messages in which he thanked Ayesha for the “Wakeup call.”

    The singer took to his Instagram stories to respond to the allegations and has claimed that Ayesha hasn’t shared all of his replies to her.

    “Today, I put the teaser and release date of the video and the son but as I was doing that, I got a message from newspapers that I have been accused of #MeToo by Ayesha Binte and my screenshots and apologies have been put up. She didn’t put all of them and that’s sad.”

     “I even suggested I should be hanged and executed publicly. She simply wasn’t taking me seriously. Anyway, I am so glad she finally put it out,” he added.

    Ali, also said that he wants to release his song in “peace”.

    Ali later on his Instagram story said, “After deeply deliberating various responses, I came to the conclusion that the only right right response is that i am truly deeply sorry.”

    READ MORE: ‘Harraser exposed, disgusting’: Komal Aziz grills Ali Noor amidst harassment controversy

  • ‘Pride of Pak’, Iqrar-ul-Hassan’s son writes note for injured father

    Television host and Journalist Syed Iqrar-ul-Hassan’s son Pehlaaj Hassan took to his Instagram to write a short note for his father who was recently attacked.

    “The pride of Pakistan, I can proudly say that Mere baba is now on the road to recovery and inshallah will be back on the road soon, Thank you for all your support aur ap sab Dua karte rahe. Pakistan Zindabad,” he wrote in his Instagram post while sharing his father’s picture.

    Pictures of Hassan in bloodied, torn-up clothes, receiving medical treatment on a hospital bed started making rounds on social media on Feburary 14. Later, journalist Waseem Badami shared pictures and videos of him visiting Hassan at the hospital.

    Talking about the incident, Iqrar said that he and his team members were “stripped naked, blindfolded and tortured for exposing the corruption of an IB inspector”. He alleged that IB officials also shot videos of him after stripping him and his team members naked.

  • Qandeel Baloch’s murderer released by court

    Qandeel Baloch’s murderer released by court

    The Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has acquitted Waseem Azeem. Waseem is also Qandeel’s brother. As per media reports, Justice Sohail Nasir announced the verdict on the basis of an agreement between the parties and on retraction of statements recorded by the witnesses.

    Lawyer Nighat Dad, while talking to The Current, said that she is “shocked” at the decision. She continued by adding that Qandeel’s father, who passed away a month ago, had lost his sight and was disabled, and that he was the only one who was pursuing the case in one way or another. She added that the state should answer how the acquittal has been made possible.

    Qandeel’s lawyer Safdar Abbas Shah while talking to BBC Urdu said that he had submitted the letter of consent from Qandeel’s parents that they have no objection if the court acquits Waseem. He further said that Waseem has now said that he did not murder Qandeel and police took the confessional statement by threatening him.

    Qandeel Baloch, a social media star, was strangled to death in Multan in July 2016 and her brothers Waseem Azeem and Aslam Shaheen were accused of murdering her. A model court in Multan sentenced her brother Wasim Azeem to life in prison for murdering his sister. Life imprisonment means 25 years in jail.

  • Noor was murdered by someone else at a drug party: Zahir Jaffer

    Noor was murdered by someone else at a drug party: Zahir Jaffer

    Zahir Jaffer, the prime suspect in the Noor Mukdam murder case, has retracted his confessional statement. Zahir said that Noor called her friends at his house for a drug party, and she was murdered by someone else, maybe someone present at the drug party, and not him.

    “Hours later, when I regained consciousness, I found myself tied up in the lounge,” Zahir’s statement added, which he gave before an Islamabad court. “She [Noor] came to my house with a large number of drugs and asked me to throw a drug party, but I refused,” claimed Jaffer. He further added that he was “rescued” by the police.

    Zahir said that Noor’s father is an influential man, and he has fabricated charges against him with the help of the police.

    Earlier this month, a local court in Islamabad, requested the Islamabad High Court (IHC) grant additional time to complete the trial. The murder trial began in October 2021.

    Noor Mukadam was brutally murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20. Her death sparked national outrage, including protests and candlelight vigils across the country. The Islamabad police arrested main suspect Zahir on the night of July 20 from his house.

  • Big win for women: Senate passes child custody bill, after mother, ‘nani’ will get custody

    Big win for women: Senate passes child custody bill, after mother, ‘nani’ will get custody

    The Senate passed three bills on Monday, including the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill 2020. The bill gives mothers the right of custody of minors in case of separation between parents. The ‘real’ mother’s right to custody of her children is addressed in section 19-A, which has been added alongside sections 19-B through 19-G.

    PPP Senator Farooq H Naek introduced the bill in the upper house of Parliament. Despite the government’s reservations over the non-inclusion of the Council of Islamic Ideology’s recommendations in the proposed legislation, it was passed by a majority vote.

    Naek said the proposed amendment bill would ensure custody of male and female children to divorcee/widow mothers, up to the age of seven and 16 years respectively.

    According to the bill, “In absence of the real mother, or if she renounces her right or her right is legally held to have lapsed, the custody of her son less than seven years of age and of her daughter who has not attained the age of puberty or 16 years shall vest successively in the female relatives in the following order: maternal grandmother however so high in degree, paternal grandmother however so high in degree, full sister, uterine sister, consanguine sister, full sister’s daughter, uterine sister’s daughter, consanguine sister’s daughter, mother’s sister and father’s sister.”

    “When none of the women, eligible for custody under sections 19A and 19B, are available or willing to accept it or such a woman is disentitled to Hizanat, the male relatives shall then become eligible for the custody of the child in the following order: father, maternal grandfather however so high in degree, paternal grandfather however so high in degree, full brother, uterine brother, consanguine brother, full brother’s son, uterine brother’s son and consanguine brother’s son.”

    The bill from the Senate, will now go to the National Assembly for a vote to be passed into law.

  • State will prosecute Usman Mirza case despite victims refusal to give statement

    State will prosecute Usman Mirza case despite victims refusal to give statement

    Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Barrister Maleeka Bokhari in a tweet has said that the State will pursue prosecution in the Usman Mirza case.

    “The State will pursue prosecution in the Usman Mirza case irrespective of recent developments relating to victim’s testimony. Irrefutable video & forensic evidence on record- anyone harrassing & stripping a woman must face full force of the law,” read Bokhari’s tweet.

    The case came back into the limelight again yesterday when Journalist Rauf Klasra, in a tweet said that the victim couple in the Usman Mirza case have refused to recognise the accused persons. He further said that police has said the couple have taken “one crore and have reached a settlement.”

  • Chief Justice proposes Justice Ayesha Malik’s name for SC judge, again

    Chief Justice proposes Justice Ayesha Malik’s name for SC judge, again

    Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed has proposed the name of Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Ayesha Malik for her appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) once again. A meeting of Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has been again called by the CJP on January 6 to consider Justice Ayesha’s nomination.

    CJP Gulzar Ahmed is due to retire in February 2022.

    Read more- Judicial reforms and the question of representation

    The decision to propose her name again has been welcomed by Women In Law, which is an initiative that brings together female lawyers of Pakistan and works for their equality of opportunity in the profession.

    Earlier, the JCP in September did not approve the nomination of Justice Ayesha Malik for SC appointment.

    Read more- In-depth analysis: Everything you need to know about Justice Ayesha Malik’s SC appointment

    If appointed, Justice Ayesha Malik will be the first woman to reach the apex court, and in the future can be appointed as the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

    As per the Lahore High Court website, Justice Ayesha Malik completed her education from Paris and New York and did her Senior Cambridge from the Karachi Grammar School. She did her A-Levels from the Francis Holland School for Girls in London. She assumed office in March 2012.

    Read more- Pakistan judiciary’s missed moment