Sukkur raid, ‘illegally detained’ Filipina found

Accused denies charge; discrepancy in timeline of allegation.

SUKKUR:

The second civil judge, Sukkur, and the local police recovered a Filipina woman in a house raid in Site area on Tuesday night. She was put in illegal confinement for the past two months of her four-month employment, she alleged.

Maria Conchita was produced in the civil court on Wednesday. She stated before the court that Ali Akbar Rizvi had employed her at a salary of $400 for the last four months, through a recruiting agency in Lahore.

Maria accused her employer of not paying her salary for the last two months, and when she demanded the salary, Rizvi and his family members beat her up, her lawyer, Rahib Ali Malano, told the court.

However, Rizvi denied all charges. He claimed that he had hired Maria on a two-year contract as a domestic help,starting June this year, adding that she had been paid salary for one month. He had a receipt signed by her to prove it, Rizvi added. She is free to go anywhere, and she went to Karachi during the last couple of months, he said, adding that all the documents, including her passport, work contract, letter from the Philippines Embassy, and receipt of payment, can be presented at the court.

The civil court judge adjourned the hearing for September 4.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2013.