Indian’s deportation stayed by Pak

An Indian woman who converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man won permission today to remain in Pakistan for another two months, the co...

An Indian woman who converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man won permission today to remain in Pakistan for another two months, the couple and an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Hafsa Aman, 25, a physician who is eight months pregnant, had faced deportation since Pakistani officials earlier this year rejected her request to remain with her husband, Aman Khan, also 25. The woman converted to Islam and said she had no intention of returning to India, but authorities refused her application.

Khan, who lives in Mardan, a deeply conservative northwestern city, filed a lawsuit to block his wife’s deportation. The two met in 1996 in Ukarine, where they were both studying medicine.

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A court in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, is expected to rule next month on whether Aman has a right to live in Pakistan permanently.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said today’s decision means she will be able to stay in Pakistan for at least another 60 days. ‘‘We took this decision to save her from deportation,’’ he said.

Khan said he has been trying without success to get citizenship or a residency visa for his wife since they came to

Pakistan last year. ‘‘I have been begging the government not to deport my wife,’’ he said.

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