THE family of Scots mother killed in Pakistan have begun court proceedings in over the prosecution of her husband.

Lawyers acting for the family of Mumtaz Sattar, of Port Glasgow, have also framed new charges against police officers over alleged corruption.

Abdul Sattar, 45, and some alleged accomplices appeared in court yesterday in connection with her death.

The court date came more than three months after his 38-year-old wife died in suspicious circumstances shortly after arriving in Punjab.

A post-mortem indicated she may have been throttled, while her husband said she died after the couple had drunk spiked tea.

Aamer Anwar, the Glasgow solicitor acting on the dead woman's family's behalf, said there were fundamental concerns that basic forensic and investigative steps had not been followed by police, which jeopardised the case.

He also said that as part of the investigation, Police Scotland had uncovered a "turbulent history of sustained and brutal violence by Abdul Sattar towards his wife" over their 14 year marriage.

Mr Anwar said: "Various requests for information and offers of assistance by authorities and my firm were made to the Punjab police, which were routinely ignored.

"Furthermore, serious allegations were raised of bribery and corruption of the police officers involved in investigating the case. Despite this, no inquiry took place into their actions.

"I even have a recording of police officers asking witnesses to lie. Despite the arrest of the accused, matters appeared to grind to a halt.

"I believed at best that police were being incompetent and at worst had deliberately tried to sabotage a successful prosecution.

"It was clear to me that I would have no option but to travel to Pakistan and for my firm to take matters into its own hands."

He has now instructed two of Pakistan's leading criminal advocates, Mrs Bushra Qamar and Humd-ur-Rehman Waseem Zafar, to assist in the prosecution, believing police failures to investigate would lead to "a failure" in the state prosecution.

The team is now preparing to indict investigating officers for "dereliction of duty".

The case was adjourned till January 21, to allow for more time to prepare a private prosecution - outwith the hands of the state.

Mr Anwar said: "We now intend to frame within the final charges that the investigation officers were incompetent and a defective investigation was carried out.

"The police were bound to collect evidence but failed to do so and are now liable for prosecution for defective investigation.