PESHAWAR, April 16: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Monday dropped the contempt of court charges against the head of the National Database and Registration Authority, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, after learning that a Russian woman, who married a Pakistani, had been issued Pakistan Origin Card (POC).

Nadra director general Ahmad Khattak told Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan that the Interior Ministry had informed his organisation in writing about a ban on issuance of POC for security reasons but on court’s order it was issued to Kristina Petrochenkova, who changed her name to Parveen after converting to Islam.

The contempt notice to the officer was issued when Ms Kristina complained to the court during the previous hearing that despite the court order she was being denied POC.

The court extended interim pre-arrest bail earlier granted to Ms Kristina in a theft case which she claimed was registered by her husband with a mala fide intent after she sought divorce from him.

On March 26, it granted interim pre-arrest bail to the women and directed Nadra authorities to issue POC to her.

When the court began hearing into the case on Monday, the petitioner’s husband, Ikramullah Khan, showed up along with his lawyer, Asad Jan, and requested adjournment of the proceedings saying his counsel wanted to prepare himself for the case.The petitioner said the complainant had snatched her passport due to which she had been in difficulty.

Mr Ikramullah denied the charge and said he would defend himself before a lower court, which was to hear her case.

The court observed that it was a factual controversy which would be decided by the relevant court, and asked the petitioner why she didn’t visit the Russian Embassy for resolution of her problem.

The petitioner replied that for getting new Russian passport, she had to visit Russia, but presently she had been contesting several cases against the complainant and could not leave Pakistan.

The court directed her to approach the Russian Embassy, saying it has to help her in the matter of preparation of new passport on urgent basis. It directed the judge of the family court to expedite the matter with regard to dower etc between the petitioner and the complainant. The bench fixed the next hearing for April 30.

Attiqur Rehman and Sikandar Hayat, counsel for the petitioner, said she had converted to Islam in 2005 and married Mr Ikramullah in Thailand.

According to them, Ikramullah registered an FIR against the petitioner on March 19, 2012, in Charsadda wherein he alleged that he was away from home and the petitioner had taken away around Rs1.25 million and 30 tolas of gold ornaments. The petitioner said she had strained relations with the complainant following which she filed a suit with the court for dissolution of marriage. She alleged that Ikramullah had been pressurising her to withdraw the case.

During the hearing, the CJ observed that the Frontier Constabulary (FC) was raised by the colonial rulers for operating in buffer zone between the settled areas and the frontier regions, but the said force was later been deployed in other parts of the country badly affecting law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Had the FC been performing its original duty, the jailbreak incident at Bannu would have not taken place,” he said, adding that around 28 platoons of FC had been performing duty in Islamabad, whereas a large number of them were also deputed in Balochistan and Sindh.

The court observed that for VIP duty in Islamabad, the government should raise another force and that it was the provincial government’s incapability that it had not taken up the matter with the federal government.