GUJRAT: The Jhelum Civil Lines police have arrested a maternal uncle of Samia Shahid, a British national of Pakistani origin who was slain for honour by her family, under forgery charges for getting her death certificate from a local union council.

The certificate managed by Haq Nawaz through Ladhar union council in Dina tehsil showed her ex-husband Chaudhary Shakil as her present husband and declared that she had died from natural causes.

Police said Nawaz had done so to save Shakil from charges of rape that had already been proved in the forensic report of Samia’s dead body and the DNA test of Shakil.

The section 376 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) under the rape charges has also been added to the case registered against Shakil.

Police said the death certificate was produced before the investigating team on Aug 8 after the forensic report had proved that Samia died of unnatural causes through asphyxiation. Suspect Shakil later confessed to strangulating her after intoxication.

According to a police official, the family in a bid to save Shakil from rape charges had got mentioned him as the current husband of the deceased in the death certificate against the fact that she had contracted second marriage with Syed Mukhtar Kazim after getting divorce from her first husband who was also her first cousin.SSP range crime, Rawalpindi region, Malik Sikandar Hayat who is currently holding the additional charge of Jhelum DPO told Dawn by telephone that Haq Nawaz had been arrested and sent to the district jail on judicial remand.

He said no further investigation was required as the investigation team comprising senior officials of the Punjab police had thoroughly probed and compiled detailed findings in the case.

Sources said police were yet to interrogate Ladhar union council staff who issued the death certificate without verification.

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016