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International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014 17 Malaysia’s Anwar back 60 Indian students to in court over sodomy face sedition charges PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian opposition leader reporters. Government lawyer Shafee Abdullah Students accused of cheering Anwar Ibrahim returned to court yesterday for a said a lower court judge had erred in freeing government appeal against his sodomy acquit- Anwar. “The appeal has got to be allowed. The Pakistan’s victory over India tal, putting at risk his bid to contest an impor- respondent must be found guilty,” he told the LUCKNOW: Some 60 students from Indian- They have fought two wars since 1947 over the tant state by-election. The 66-year-old veteran court. The defense has unsuccessfully sought to administered Kashmir may face sedition northern Himalayan territory. Since 1989 politician, who was cleared in 2012 of having disqualify Shafee and maintains that DNA evi- charges for cheering Pakistan’s victory over Indian forces have been fighting militant sex with a young male former aide, slammed dence was compromised. In his earlier ruling, a India in a recent cricket match, police said yes- groups seeking independence or the merger the appeal, saying it was a political ploy to tar- Kuala Lumpur High Court judge said controver- terday. Police were investigating the students of the territory with Pakistan, with repressive nish his image in the conservative Muslim- sial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecu- following a complaint from university officials policing and human rights abuses feeding into majority nation. tion was unreliable. Mohamad Saiful Bukhari in the northern city of Meerut over celebra- local anti-India resentment. “There is absolutely no case for them. This is Azlan accused Anwar in 2008 of having had sex tions following Pakistan’s win on Sunday in an Many Kashmiris associate more with clearly seen to be political,” Anwar told AFP in with him. Asia Cup clash. The students, all enrolled at the Pakistan, a Muslim-majority Islamic republic, the packed Court of Appeal in the country’s Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia and punishable Swami Vivekananda Subharti University than with Hindu-majority India which is offi- administrative capital of Putrajaya. A rights by up to 20 years in jail. Anwar has denied the (SVSU), have been suspended and were escort- cially secular. Indian Kashmir chief minister group described the government appeal as a charges as a political ploy intended to send him ed from campus following the match due to Omar Abdullah said any sedition charges “travesty of justice.” Anwar plans to contest a to jail and damage his reputation after opposi- concerns about violence with other Indian stu- would be “unacceptably harsh.” “Sedition seat in the central state of Selangor surround- tion gains in 2008 elections. It is not the first dents, university sources said. “The SVSU charge against Kashmiri students is an unac- ing the capital on March 23. He is expected to time the former deputy premier has faced administration on Wednesday submitted a ceptably harsh punishment that will ruin their win and subsequently take over the powerful sodomy charges. In 1998 he was sacked from written complaint against unknown persons futures & will further alienate them,” Abdullah post of state chief minister, in an attempt to the number two post in the ruling party by then- for indulging in anti-national activities and cre- said on Twitter. “I believe what the students boost his political career and restore unity in his ruling strongman Mahathir Mohamad, and jailed ating a ruckus on the university campus,” did was wrong & misguided but they certainly party. But his lawyer Karpal Singh said any on sodomy and corruption charges. The Meerut police chief Omkar Singh told AFP. didn’t deserve to have charges of sedition Appeals Court conviction before the state elec- sodomy charge was later overturned, and he was “We have registered a case and the probe is slapped against them.” Pakistan’s foreign tion would bar him from running for the seat. released from prison in 2004 to take over the on,” Singh explained. “If evidence is estab- office spokesman said sedition charges A verdict is however unlikely before March opposition, posing the first real challenge to the lished against the accused, there is a set legal against the students would be “very unfortu- 23. If the court finds Anwar guilty after the by- Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition which procedure to be followed in such cases. The nate.” “If the Kashmiri students want to come election, it will not immediately affect his posi- has ruled since independence in 1957. In elec- law will take its own course,” he said, adding and pursue their education in Pakistan, our tion until the highest court rules on the case. “I tions in May last year, the opposition lost again. It that any charges would be ones of sedition. hearts and academic institutions are open to hope the judiciary will maintain its independ- alleged that fraud in marginal seats swayed the Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between them,” Tasnim Aslam told reporters in ence (to uphold the acquittal),” Anwar told result and cost it an historic victory. — AFP India and Pakistan but each claims it in full. Islamabad.— AFP Pakistani woman on a mission to educate children KARACHI: Humaira Bachal knows first- ties, Bachal’s family didn’t want to edu- hand how lack of education hurts her cate their daughter. She finished primary community. She had a cousin that died school, but her father forbade her to con- because his mother couldn’t read the tinue, preferring his eldest daughter get expiration date on a bottle of medicine. married. She knows women in her neighborhood With her mother’s help she studied in who died giving birth at home because secret, hiding her school uniform and their families didn’t know to send them to books at a friend’s house. This went on for the hospital. “These things are breaking nine months until a day of reckoning she my heart and every time I am raising the remembers as one of the most important question ‘Why are people doing this?’” of her life. She was preparing to go to said the 26-year-old Bachal. “Maybe when school for a test, but her father came my people are educated these problems home early and questioned where she would be reduced.” was going. When he discovered she had So at the age of 13, she began teach- been secretly going to school, he was ing other girls what she learned in school. livid and slapped her cheek. A showdown Those classes at home between friends ensued between her parents with her grew into her life’s work - bringing educa- father beating her mother and her moth- tion to children in the working-class er defiantly telling Bachal to go to school. Muwach Goth neighborhood on the out- “I just ran from the house and went to the skirts of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, school and did my exams. I was worried where families often keep their girls out about my father beating my mother. I of school and where even boys struggle didn’t know what was happening in my KARACHI: Pakistani students gather around Humaira Bachal, the founder of a to get decent learning. Through hard home,” she said. charity school as she teaches them in a classroom in Karachi, Pakistan. —AP work and a sweet-but-stubborn attitude, Eventually her father agreed to let her Bachal has gone from a teenager who hid continue her education as long as she had joined as teachers into a rented dents at Bachal’s school and their parents her schoolbooks from her father, who married whomever he chose. She has yet building. At the same time, she lobbied say she personally visited their families to opposed her education, to running a to marry but she certainly pursued her families in her neighborhood to send convince them. And many of the mothers foundation that teaches 1,200 boys and studies. She graduated from high school, their children to school although the are sending their daughters there over girls at her Dream Model Street School. got a bachelor’s degree, is studying for reception wasn’t always great. She said the opposition of the men in their fami- Hers is a story about the power of one her master’s, and learned English. Her local elders asked her family to move, say- lies. woman to change not only her own dedication draws comparisons to 16-year- ing they weren’t a good influence. “I thought it might be God’s help that future but the future of people around old Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girls’ The owner of the building she was she came to the door,” said Salma Haji, a her - even in a society like Pakistan where education proponent who survived being renting tried to lock them out once. So teacher who volunteered to help at the entrenched rules restrict women’s ability shot in the head by a Taleban gunman in they held classes in the street in front of school after Bachal visited her home and to affect change. 2012. Bachal said she hasn’t faced any the building until he relented. “The com- who takes teacher training courses with With help from domestic and interna- violence, just stiff resistance from com- munity is made up of laborers and people the foundation. One parent, Ashraf tional donations - Madonna has given munity elders. who are non-skilled workers. So she’s had Khattoon, said her father and uncle taunt money - the foundation is building a new She started out at 13, with help from to convince them why education is her for getting her daughters an educa- 18-room home for the school, which has her younger sister Tahira, with a important to begin with,” said Academy tion, insisting instead they should marry.

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