A magistrate today told of her desperate fight to discover why her businessman husband was brutally murdered in Pakistan.

Property developer Mohammed Akram was found shot dead in the bedroom of his house in a Lahore suburb.

He had been shot in the head but his body was only found days later when neighbours called police complaining about a smell coming from the house.

Today, Riffat Akram, of Heaton, Bradford, said she only learned of her husband's murder when a friend rang her father to offer condolences after he had been buried.

Mrs Akram, 49, said: "It is worse than a nightmare. As well as the grief of coming to terms with the loss I am not getting anywhere trying to find out what happened.

"The police said his body had been found six days after he was shot but then there was another report saying his body had been found by his brother."

Mrs Akram, who sits on the Bradford bench, was on holiday in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates when her father telephoned her to break the news of the murder in March. She immediately flew to Pakistan where she was comforted by relatives.

She had to return to England to be with their two sons and daughter and made arrangements to go back to Pakistan to sort out her husband's estate.

When she returned there, however, her brother-in-law, Mohammed Anwar, refused to have anything to do with her and would not let her in the house, she said.

"It was like he didn't know me. He wouldn't let me in the house and I had to make alternative arrangements over where to stay," she said.

"When I went to the police station I had to take a male relation with me and the police officers took no notice of me whatsoever. Their attitude was that I'm just a woman. They disregarded my nephew also because he was young. To get anywhere in Pakistan you have to be a man of status and then they listen to you."

In the end, in fear for her life, she returned home to England. When she visited her brother-in-law with relatives, an armed guard pointed a gun at them.

"I just thought that as my husband had been murdered it was too much of a risk to take," she said.

Back in Bradford Mrs Akram contacted her MP Marsha Singh and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation.

"But I have not got anywhere. The situation is that I am at a complete loss at what to do. I have contacted the Pakistan High Commission and Marsha Singh MP. I don't know what else to do."

Today, Mr Singh, the Labour MP for Bradford West, promised to take the matter to the highest level.

"I have written to the Foreign Office minister and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw about this situation," he said.

"I think the problem arises because Mrs Akram's husband had dual nationality and the Foreign Office does not have any jurisdiction in those cases. However, we will do our utmost to get some answers. It is going to take some time but I hope that we can find out what has happened."

Inspector Martin Baines, Bradford community and race relations officer, said: "We will look into the matter and try to give what help and assistance we can.

"We will try to find out what is going on. Through the links we have fostered with our counterparts in Pakistan we will endeavour to find out in relation to this murder. Most of our links are in Kashmir but we have visited Lahore and there are ways we can find out what happened."