Save me from police, says Arab woman

PESHAWAR: Sheikha Mahmood, an Arab woman from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who married a Pakistani man, has appealed to the government to save her from “police harassment”.

Twenty-one-year old Sheikha told reporters on Wednesday that the police acting at the behest of the UAE embassy in Islamabad, wanted to arrest and deport her.

“I married of my own free will in the presence of witnesses according to the Islamic law,” she said. The Arab woman came to Pakistan on April 7 on a three-month visit visa and married Juma Raz Khan, a resident of southern Karak district in the NWFP.

She said that her brothers through the UAE embassy were pressuring the government to deport her. “I appeal to the Pakistani government to grant me citizenship and my visa be extended till I get the citizenship,” she said.

The family of Juma Khan is trying to obtain Pakistani citizenship for her. Juma Khan said that he was a driver with Sheikha’s father. He claimed that her father had promised to arrange Sheikha’s marriage with him but after his death, her brother refused to honour their father’s commitment. He said that some foreign diplomats had contacted them for a meeting with them in Peshawar. “My brothers, Abbes and Kabil, came to Peshawar to meet the diplomats but the police arrested them from the hotel,” he said. Abbas was released but Kabil was still in police custody, he said.

Sheikha said that she had arranged travelling documents with the help her nephew, Alhamdi, who had come with her to Pakistan. Alhamdi, she said, was also arrested by the police and might be deported. staff report

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