JHELUM // A Pakistani court has adjourned the case of a Dubai-based woman’s murder until Friday to give authorities time to finalise charges against her father and former husband.
After a brief hearing in court at Jhelum yesterday, Najful Shah, the lawyer for Mukhtar Kazim — the dead woman’s husband — said he would seek the death penalty for 28-year-old Samia Shahid’s father, Mohammed Shahid, and her former husband, Mohammed Shakeel.
Mr Shah said Shahid’s mother and sister tricked her into visiting Pakistan in July by saying that her father was ill. The women fled to Britain after the murder, he said, adding that Pakistan was trying to bring them back for questioning.
Defence lawyer Mohammed Arif dismissed the police allegations as a baseless. He said he would appeal against another court’s rejection of bail for Mr Shahid.
A government-ordered police investigation concluded that Shahid was strangled by her father and ex-husband. Police said that the father stood guard as the ex-husband raped her.
Shahid married Mr Shakeel in 2012 but stayed only briefly in Pakistan before returning to Britain, where she obtained a divorce two years later. She later married Mr Kazim and went to live with him in Dubai.
*Associated Press
