Court extends remand of three suspects in foreign women assault case

A judicial magistrate on Thursday granted police a further four-day physical remand of three suspects allegedly involved in the abduction and rape of two foreign women, accepting the investigating agency's request to complete the recovery of weapons and other case property. Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood passed the order after Defence-C Police produced suspects Rizwan, Nawaz and Nasir before the court on the expiry of their previous five-day physical remand. During the hearing, the court asked the prosecution what recoveries had been made from the suspects during the previous remand. Read: LHC seeks SHO report over suspect's detention in foreign women case The state prosecutor informed the court that weapons had been recovered from suspects Rizwan and Nasir. The investigating officer stated that the weapon allegedly used by suspect Nawaz had yet to be recovered. The investigating officer further submitted that the police also had to recover cash, jewellery, and a wristwatch allegedly linked to the offence and sought additional custody of the suspects to complete the investigation. After hearing the arguments, the court allowed the prosecution's request and handed the three suspects over to police on a further four-day physical remand. The suspects are facing charges in a case registered over the alleged abduction and rape of two foreign women. The case The case was registered at Defence-C Police Station after two foreign women alleged that they had been abducted and sexually assaulted. The victim said that the women travelled to Pakistan after being invited by an acquaintance they had met in Singapore in October 2025. She added that on June 29, they were abducted by an acquaintance and four accomplices, who demanded money for their release. The complaint further contained allegations of repeated sexual assault, threats with weapons, physical abuse, and extortion. A statement from the Lahore police said an emergency call was received through the Punjab Emergency Helpline after the father of one of the women, who was in the Netherlands, reported the alleged kidnapping. Following directions from Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, the Lahore police launched an operation, using Safe City surveillance to trace the suspects. The statement added that the two women were recovered within approximately two hours, while four suspects were arrested. Police said raids were continuing to apprehend the remaining suspects. Also Read: Lahore court grants five-day physical remand of four in alleged foreign women assault case Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Faisal Kamran said that at around midnight on July 1, the Safe City Authority received information from a man identified as Carlos, who reported that his daughter had been abducted in Pakistan and that he had received a ransom demand. Kamran said investigators traced the family tree of a suspect and carried out raids at various locations. "During one such raid, residents of a house informed police that the suspect's family had previously lived there as tenants and was believed to have links with the deputy prime minister. The suspect was later identified as Mohammad Raza Dar," he added. He said police verified the information with the suspect's family, obtained his phone number, and began tracing his location. "The family would certainly have asked the suspect to surrender," he said. He added that investigators were also examining the possibility that a gang, rather than a single individual, was involved in the incident. According to the DIG, the suspect was driving the two women to the airport when an altercation broke out inside the vehicle near Bhatta Chowk. "During the scuffle, the vehicle collided with an object, after which the women jumped out and sought refuge at a nearby filtration plant, from where police recovered them safely," he added. The DIG said police contacted the embassies of Spain and the Netherlands after recovering the women. The Spanish embassy informed investigators that one of the women was a Venezuelan national. Following consultations with the embassies, the women agreed to undergo medical examinations and later consented to recording their statements before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Kamran said the embassies had also requested that the women be repatriated at the earliest, adding that police were continuing to investigate all aspects of the case.

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LHC introduces transport monetisation policy, allows judicial officers to buy vehicles at depreciated rates

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has rolled out a Transport Monetisation Policy, enabling judicial officers serving in the district judiciary across Punjab to purchase their officially allotted vehicles at depreciated rates. The policy has been enforced with retrospective effect from July 1, 2026. As part of the new arrangement, judicial officers will no longer be entitled to official fuel, maintenance or driver facilities for personal use. Read: Punjab judges to get subsidised cars In place of these benefits, they will receive a monthly transport monetisation allowance, the amount of which will be fixed by the competent authority and revised from time to time in accordance with fuel prices and prevailing economic conditions. According to a notification issued by the LHC registrar, Chief Justice Aalia Neelum approved the policy in line with the decisions of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC) and the Punjab cabinet. A major component of the policy allows judicial officers to purchase the official vehicles presently allotted to them by paying a depreciated lump-sum amount. Those opting not to purchase the vehicles will have to surrender them immediately to their respective district and sessions judges. The notification provides that the depreciated price will be worked out by applying depreciation at the rate of 15 per cent during the first year and 10 per cent for every subsequent year on the vehicle's original purchase cost. The policy requires the entire purchase amount to be paid in a lump sum through a pay order or demand draft in favour of the LHC registrar. It further stipulates that the sale price will not be less than Rs200,000 for vehicles up to 1000cc and Rs250,000 for vehicles with an engine capacity of 1300cc or above. Officers intending to purchase their allotted vehicles will also have to furnish a written undertaking accepting the prescribed terms and conditions. Also Read: Punjab Police seek Rs238m for bulletproof vehicles for ATC judges After the purchase, the vehicles must be registered as private vehicles. Government registration numbers and green number plates will have to be surrendered, while all expenses relating to re-registration, transfer, and applicable taxes will be borne by the purchasing judicial officer. The notification makes it clear that the facility is available only to judicial officers who have been officially allotted vehicles by the Lahore High Court. It also extends the option to the widow or spouse of a judicial officer who dies during service, allowing them to purchase the allotted vehicle at the depreciated price, subject to the prescribed procedure and approval. Judicial officers facing disciplinary proceedings, as well as those who have already surrendered their official vehicles, will generally not be entitled to avail themselves of the scheme. However, probationary judicial officers may benefit from the policy, subject to the applicable conditions. The notification further directs every district to maintain a centralised pool of official vehicles solely for official and protocol purposes, while any surplus vehicles arising from the implementation of the monetisation policy are to be reported to the Lahore High Court without delay.

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Four bodies, including missing security personnel, recovered in Quetta

Police on Wednesday recovered four bodies from the Shaban area of Quetta, including those of missing security personnel and a police officer who had been abducted nearly a month ago. According to sources, the victims were identified as Airport Security Force (ASF) Inspector Zubair Ahmed Shahwani, former Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) corporal Syed Khalilur Rehman, retired Pakistan Army Havaldar Sadiq, and Police Constable Farid, who was previously reported to have been abducted from the Mangi Dam area. Police authorities moved the bodies to a local hospital for the necessary legal formalities and final identification procedures. Read: Forces rain wrath on terrorists in Balochistan The recovery ends the search for Inspector Shahwani and his friend, former CTD corporal Rehman, both of whom had gone missing on June 21 after leaving Shahwani's residence in the Killi Barat area of Jinnah Town. Meanwhile, Constable Farid had been missing since his alleged abduction from the Mangi Dam area, while retired Havaldar Sadiq had also been unaccounted for before the discovery. Security forces cordoned off the area to collect forensic evidence and launched a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Official statements on the incident are still awaited from the authorities.

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Italy rejects relatives' appeals in Pakistani teen Saman Abbas honour killing case against life sentences

Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation — the country's highest appeals court — rejected appeals against the life sentences handed down to the relatives of Saman Abbas, the 18-year-old Pakistani teenager who was murdered in 2021 after refusing an arranged marriage, Italian media outlets reported on Wednesday. Read: Pakistani couple sentenced to life in Italy for killing daughter Abbas was living in Novellara, near Bologna, when she disappeared in May 2021 after rejecting her family's demand the previous year that she marry a cousin in Pakistan. She had reported her parents to the police, after which social workers placed her in a shelter in November 2020. However, she returned to visit her family in April 2021 to collect her passport and begin a new life with her boyfriend, whom her family disapproved of. She disappeared soon afterwards. Police, alerted by her boyfriend, raided the family home in May, but her parents had already left for Pakistan. According to surveillance camera footage, Abbas was believed to have been killed on the night between April 30 and May 1. The footage showed five people leaving the family home carrying shovels, crowbars and buckets before returning about two and a half hours later. Also Read: Father extradited from Pakistan to Italy in 'honour killing' case Her body was discovered a year later in an abandoned farmhouse with a broken neck. Her father, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to Italy in August 2023. In 2024, her mother was arrested in Azad Kashmir after remaining on the run for three years. Her uncle, Danish Hasnain, was handed over by French authorities, while her cousins were arrested in Spain. The couple was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court in 2023, while Hasnain was sentenced to 14 years in prison after accepting a plea bargain. He was later sentenced to 22 years. Her two cousins were initially acquitted in the case, which shocked Italy. Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the Court of Cassation rejected the appeals filed by the parents and cousins against their life sentences and by the uncle against his 22-year sentence, making the convictions final. According to the report, prosecutors argued that Abbas was murdered for "opposing an arranged marriage and for adopting a lifestyle her family considered "incompatible" with its traditions. L'Unione Sarda reported that the defendants were "found to face the aggravating circumstances of premeditation and frivolous motives". It quoted Maria Teresa Manente, head of the legal department at Differenza Donna — an Italian feminist non-governmental organisation — and the association's civil defence attorney, as saying: "This ruling represents a turning point on a social level, even before a legal one. The Court of Cassation definitively crystallises what we have argued in every court: Saman was killed because she was a woman who rebelled against patriarchal rules, punished for escaping the subordinate role the family order imposed on her. "Her death was not an excess, an impulse, an 'accident' from a distant cultural context: it was, as the trial documents themselves reveal, a punishment. The plan to kill her was born the very moment Saman dared to assert her right to choose who to love, whether to study, how to dress, how to live. Her freedom was her 'crime' in the eyes of her family; her life was its punishment." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the development, saying that "a painful judicial saga comes to a close." She added: "No verdict can bring her life back, but it is right that those responsible for this barbaric crime have been definitively convicted. In Italy, there is no room for those who presume to deny, in the name of supposed cultural or religious justifications, a woman's freedom, dignity, and life. These are non-negotiable principles from which we will never retreat." Con la sentenza definitiva per l'omicidio di Saman Abbas si chiude una dolorosa vicenda giudiziaria. Saman, giovane di origine pakistana in Italia, è stata uccisa dai suoi genitori e da alcuni familiari dopo essersi opposta a un matrimonio forzato e aver rivendicato il diritto… pic.twitter.com/nFrH3QyoId — Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) July 15, 2026  

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SC limits customs action over misdeclaration

The Supreme Court has ruled that proceedings under Section 32 of the Customs Act, 1969 cannot be initiated unless the Customs Department establishes deliberate misdeclaration, false documentation or fraud. The court further held that where a dispute relates merely to the interpretation of law, a show-cause notice issued after the prescribed limitation period is legally ineffective. According to detailed written judgments, a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb decided two separate customs-related cases.

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'Population boom now a security issue'

Pakistan's rapidly growing population is no longer merely a health or economic challenge but has emerged as a matter of national security requiring coordinated action from the country's political, military, religious and social leadership, UNFPA Pakistan Representative Dr Luay Shabaneh said while addressing a media briefing here on Monday, ahead of World Population Day 2026. He shared the findings of a global report titled Lives, Choices and Futures: What Young People Want and What Shapes Their Decisions About Relationships and Parenthood. The report, he said, is based on responses from more than 100,000 young people aged 18-39 across 73 countries, including over 1,700 respondents from Pakistan. The findings come at a time when Pakistan's population has reached around 257.2 million, with nearly one-third of its citizens aged between 10 and 24 years, making investment in youth essential for the country's future stability and prosperity, Dr Shabaneh said. Elaborating on the key challenges and opportunities contributing to greater awareness among young people regarding family planning, informed relationship choices, parenthood, marriage and children, Dr Shabaneh said it was time for Pakistan to grow rich and prosperous before its population grows old. He also welcomed the government's renewed focus on population management, particularly appreciating Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for personally chairing the National Population Council (NPC). He noted that the inclusion of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir in the national body reflects that population management has become a strategic national priority extending beyond the health sector to encompass economic resilience, social cohesion and national security. He emphasised that sustainable population management cannot be achieved through government departments alone. Parliamentarians, provincial legislators, religious scholars and community leaders have a decisive role in promoting responsible parenthood, birth spacing, girls' education and awareness while dispelling misconceptions surrounding reproductive health. Their collective engagement, he said, is vital to addressing one of Pakistan's most pressing long-term challenges. Dr Shabaneh said the report highlights that young people across the world aspire to meaningful lives, stable relationships and families but increasingly face economic uncertainty, housing shortages, insecurity, gender inequality and climate-related concerns that influence their decisions regarding marriage and parenthood. According to the Pakistan findings, 76 per cent of respondents expressed optimism about the future despite mounting challenges. However, 53 per cent cited conflict and security risks, economic insecurity, inequality, health concerns and environmental threats among their major worries. The survey also revealed a gap between the number of children people currently have and the number they ideally desire. Women in Pakistan have an average of 1.8 children but would prefer 2.5, while men reported an average of 2.5 children and ideally wanted 3.4. Among Pakistanis aged 35-39 without children, 65 per cent said they would like to become parents. Dr Shabaneh stressed that reproductive decisions are shaped by real-life circumstances rather than fertility targets alone. Young people identified financial security, stable employment, housing, emotional readiness, healthcare, gender equality and access to quality public services as the key conditions needed before starting families. He underlined that Pakistan's youthful population represents an enormous opportunity if equipped with education, skills and employment. Otherwise, the country risks missing its demographic dividend. Highlighting the growing importance of digital connectivity, Dr Shabaneh said internet access has become a gateway to education, employment, information and civic participation. Expanding digital inclusion, especially for girls, rural youth and marginalised communities, is essential for unlocking Pakistan's economic potential, particularly as the country already hosts one of the world's largest young freelance workforces, he said.

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LHC bars new civil suits sans reasoned orders

In a significant ruling clarifying the scope of judicial discretion under the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), the Lahore High Court has ruled that courts cannot permit a plaintiff to withdraw a civil suit with liberty to file a fresh one through a non-speaking order, holding that such permission must be supported by specific reasons demonstrating the existence of a formal defect or other sufficient legal grounds under the law. In a detailed judgment, Justice Raheel Kamran held that permission to institute a fresh suit, which exempts a plaintiff from the statutory bar against filing another suit on the same cause of action, can only be granted through a reasoned and speaking order identifying the formal defect or other sufficient legal grounds justifying the relief. Justice Kamran made the observation while allowing a constitutional petition challenging concurrent orders of the civil judge and the additional district judge, Wazirabad, which had permitted a plaintiff to withdraw a civil suit with liberty to institute a fresh one. According to the judgment, respondent Muhammad Arshad had filed a suit for declaration, possession and permanent injunction against the petitioner and another defendant. After issues were framed and the case reached the stage of the plaintiff's evidence, he sought withdrawal of the suit, stating that it contained certain legal defects and that the plaint had been drafted on incorrect facts contrary to his instructions. The trial court accepted the request and dismissed the suit as withdrawn, granting permission to file a fresh suit subject to payment of Rs3,000 in costs and all legal exceptions and limitation. The revisional court subsequently upheld that order. Before the high court, the petitioner's counsel argued that the plaintiff's statement was vague and failed to disclose any specific formal defect or sufficient ground contemplated under Order XXIII Rule 1(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure. It was contended that the plaintiff neither identified the alleged defects nor did the trial court record reasons explaining how those defects were likely to cause the suit to fail, rendering the permission legally unsustainable. Examining the legal framework, Justice Kamran observed that while Order XXIII Rule 1 of the CPC allows a plaintiff to withdraw a suit, permission to institute a fresh suit stands on a different legal footing because it shields the plaintiff from the statutory prohibition against bringing another suit on the same cause of action. For that reason, the legislature has made such permission conditional upon the court being satisfied that the suit would fail due to a formal defect or that other sufficient grounds exist. The judge held that although judicial satisfaction is a statutory requirement, it cannot remain confined to the mind of the court. Rather, it must be evident from the order itself through recorded reasons demonstrating that the court examined the alleged defect or ground and concluded that it fell within the ambit of Order XXIII Rule 1(2) of the CPC. The high court observed that, in the present case, the plaintiff merely referred to unspecified legal defects and asserted that the plaint had been drafted on incorrect facts. However, the trial court neither identified the alleged defects nor explained whether they were formal in nature or constituted sufficient grounds under the law. Instead, it simply stated that the plaintiff had shown a valid reason and that granting permission would serve the interest of justice. Justice Kamran ruled that the absence of an objection from the defendant could not relieve the court of its statutory obligation to independently examine the request.

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