Lien IN THE latest twist in a tan- gled tale of death, Faisal Rashid Khan has filed a $250,000 lawsuit against his parents, charged with murder- ing his newlywed wife two months ago in the family’s British Properties home. By Brent Mudry Contributing Writer And the grieving young widow- er was granted a broad lien against his parents’ million-dollar British Properties house by a B.C. Supreme Court judge Tuesday in Vancouver. Khan claims his parents alleged- ly killed his young wife Naazish Khan, leaving their tvo-month-old daughter. Aliya Naazish, mother- fess. ~ His father, Abdur Rashid Khan, and mather, Rashid Khan have both been charged with second- degree murder. Abdur Khan operated the Maharajah restaurant in Gastown, His wife ran the Jaanam clothing store in East Vancouver, - Rashida was recently released en $25,000 bail, but Abdur has been denied bail since his arrest soon after the body was found. Naazish, who Faisal had recent- ly married in India and brought to Canada, was found dead in the trunk of his parents’ car in Coquitlam on Dec. 11, 1993, Police have determined asphyxi- ation to be the cause of death. The suit claiins the parents, act ing alone or together, allegedly conspired to kill Naazish and com- milted a “grievous assault and bat- tery” on her. Letters Naazish wrote to her own parents in India reinforce Faisal’s claim that his parents did not fike his bride because of her religious faith. and never accepled her into the family. His futher, Abdur, has categori- sally denied the claim. Faisal filed the civil suit in this Shakespearean saga on Feb, 14. Valentine’s Day. ‘ Naazish never lived to see her four-month-old daughter on Valentine's Day. The suit, prepared by lawyer Michael Katzalay, a Vancouver NEWS photo Brad Ledwidge PEEK A DOG.A dog walk at Ambleside Park takes an unusual turn. index ; Automotive seleedesensssensnee BT (8 Classified oc 29 3 Comics cisshiesbieenedunec TD BH Crossword v..scmcnene SD Fa Home'& Garden ............ 13 © HB Unsights oes G *B Kids’ Stuff wee 1D BA Trevor Lautens «0. 6 BM Paul St. Pierre we D Weather Saturday, mainly cloudy with shawers or Nurries, high 5, low -1 Canadian Publications Mail Saies Product Agreement Number 0087238 READERS VOICE CALL US: 983-2208 Lap dancing scare surfaces NORTH VANCOUVER City Council gave the go ahead for Pepita’s restaurant to put in a dance floor, but only after Coun. Stella Jo Dean raised questions about the nature of the dancing. NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL by Greg Felton Dean wanted clarification from staff whether the dancing would be for the patrons or for the patrons’ entertainment. “One of the reasons I'm asking this,” said Dean, “is because | believe in Vancouver there is lap dancing and I certainly wouldn't want to see lap dancing in North Vancouver.” Director of development ser- vices Fred Smith assured Dean thai the applicant was a family restau- rant and that the dancing would be done by the patrons themselves. Dean also expressed surprise at the request, since it comes only two months after council approved two other applications for dance floors. Coun. Barbara Sharp said she “Supported the application. Do you support the federal govt. move to lower cigarette taxes? Harry Reynolds West Vancouver I'm strongly opposed to a reduction of cigarette taxes. [t's @ sell-out to Quebec. : Mrs. Jackson North Vancouver They can't cut the taxes for me fast enough. partner of Lang Michener. a leading national law firm, claims damages under the Farnily Compensation AcL Katzatay believes a successful judgement may exceed $250,000 for the baby’s toss of love, support, guidance and affection of her moth- er. and for Faisal’s loss of income while caring for his child. Justice Raymond Mitchell Paris signed a court-order freezing the Khan residence at $359 Whitby Rd.. preventing Abdur and Rashida from selling, transferring. mortgig- ing or otherwise diminishing their remitining cquily in the house, North Vancouver realtor Beverly Kaboly-Zadeh, of the ReMax West Realty Group, filed an affidavit valuing the house at $1 placed on $1 million British Properties home of murder co-accused million. after doing a “drive-by” esternal appraisal on Feb. 10. Lang Michener’s tite and lien search notes charges against the property of S600.000 to $615,000, leaving clear equity of $400,000. Faisal believes there is a risk his parents” assets will be removed from the country before the civil Irial because boih have remained in Canada for vears only on revolving six-month permits with no landed immigrant status. But the judge declined to extend his order to a full freeze on all the parenis’ financial assets. The rush court order was grant- ed on a ex-parte basis, without any knowledge of Faisal’s parents, but both can apply for a change on 24 hours’ notice. ‘ S6M contract announced for non-polluting bus N.Van’s Ballard Power Systems: secures gov't backing for project BALLARD POWER Systems (BPS) announced a new $6 milfion contract yesterday with the federal and provincial governments and California's South Coast Air Quality Management District (CSCAQMD) to build a com- mercial prototype of a zero- emission transit bus at the company's North Vancouver location. By Kevin Gillies Contributing Writer B.C. Minister of Employment and investment Glen Clark made the announcement with B.C. Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks Moe Sihota and North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA David Schreck. : BPS chairman of the board, Dr. Geoffrey Ballard and Canadian Secretary to the Minister of Natural . Resources. George Rideout were also attended the arinouncement ceremony. . The funds for designing, build- ing and testing the environmentai- ly-friendly bus will include: *$2.2 million from B.C. Transit and the B.C. government; *$1 million from the Canadian gov- ernment (through Natural Resources Canada); *$1.3 million from CSCAQMD; °$1.5 million from Ballard Power Systems. “This partnership represents one of the most exciting science and technology activities my govern- ment is involved with,” Clark said. He added that the provincial government has provided $4 mil- lion to the project over the Jast three years. The bus will be a 40-foot (12 m) vehicle — a standard transit bus that will operate the same as a regu- lar diesel-engined bus but for less cost than running an electric trolley and with zero emissions. It will be completed by 1995, Ballard CEO Firoz Rasul said, “This bus will look exactly like a conventional diesel transit bus but will emit no pollution. “The only byproduct of the power system is a small amount of pure water.” The Ballard fuel cell will turn natural fuel —- in this case hydro- gen — into electricity without any combustion, BPS has already built.a smaller “shuttlebus” prototype that has been tested on the streets of Vancouver arid other cities to prove the technology is practical. “This project — and others ongoing at Ballard — proves that the technology exists to replace polluting internal combustion engine vehicles with environmen- tally clean alternatives without sac- rificing power, speed and econo- my,” Rasul said. The new contract is the second of four phases in a plan to have commercial fleets of zero-emission buses on the roads of North America by 1998. THE FEDERAL government recently enraged health advocates and delighted nicotine addicts with a lowering of the federal tax take on ciga- rettes, The move was made in an attempt to deal with cigarette smugglers. Some provinces have also chosen to reduce their tax on cigareties. Tim North Vancouver Ido support the federal govern- ment, but | don’t support the provincial socialists who can’t fol- low suit. _ THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: Do you support the idea of having a Deep Cove seawaik buiit? Dave Boyle I think this shows you how naive our government is. Lowering the price isn't going to do anything at all. Jack it up at the source of rman- ufacture.