The husband of a Pakistani woman waiting for deportation at a state-run shelter home here has appealed to the Indian government to either send her to Pakistan immediately or reunite her with her family in Old Delhi.
“Send my wife back to Pakistan or release her to the family. Just don’t forget her in Nirmal Chhaya (shelter home for women),” pleaded Mohammad Gulfam, the husband of Nuzhat Jahan who has been living in Delhi for the past 30 years and is now awaiting deportation for overstaying in India illegally.
According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, Ms Jahan was married at the age of 17 and has stayed with her husband in India ever since in their small house in Sitaram Bazaar, Old Delhi.
In 2002, she was picked up for overstaying in India without a valid visa. Earlier this month she was sentenced to six days’ imprisonment, awarded a fine and ordered to be sent back to Pakistan.
After serving her punishment, she is currently lodged in the shelter home awaiting further orders from the central government.
“My wife was taken away early this month and we haven’t had proper access to her since then. A Delhi court has ordered her deportation; she has served her punishment and now is being kept in Nirmal Chhaya where we have had very little access to her. It is worse than being in Tihar Jail,” said Mr Gulfam.
“The last time I spoke to her, she said ‘please ask the Indian government to send me back to Pakistan or kill me… but don’t let them forget about me in Nirmal Chhaya’,” he added.
“The wait is the worst punishment,” said 27-year-old Gulsher, the second of Ms Jahan’s three children.
