QUETTA, Pakistan – A Pakistani father of 35 is now searching for a fourth wife as he romps towards his goal of 100 children, a dubious ambition in the conservative Muslim country where polygamy is rare but still practiced.

Sardar Jan Mohammad Khilji, 46, says he believes it is his religious duty to have as many children as possible.

Insisting it is “very rare” that he mixes up his children’s names, the medical technician said he juggles their affections by taking turns to attend family events with them and their mothers, such as weddings.

His three current wives support his procreational and matrimonial goals, he said, adding that they all live in harmony together – though he would not allow AFP to speak with them.

Rights activists warn it is women and children who suffer most in polygamous marriages.

Pakistani men are permitted to take up to four wives under Islam, though to do so they must seek permission from their first wife and an arbitration council.

It remains rare for men to take multiple wives in the country, but when polygamy does take place, studies have shown it can result in “depression and despair” among wives, while children often struggle to know their father, said Rafia Zakaria, a women’s rights activist.

The Quran, she told AFP, dictates that multiple wives may be taken only when a husband can do “perfect justice” among them.

“Well, perfect justice is impossible, and for this reason polygamy is never a good situation,” said Zakaria, who campaigns against the practice.

“Someone always suffers and almost always it is the women and children,” she added.

Family lawyer Mohammed Bilal Kasi, who deals with polygamy cases in Quetta agreed.

“We lawyers are well aware of social problems surrounding polygamy,” he said. “Women and children undergo mental agony due to these affairs.” The tension can lead to serious legal disputes over property and rights after the father’s death, he said.

Denied his permission to speak, Jan’s wives could not describe what life is like for his sprawling dynasty, who all live together in a five-bedroom mud hut in the outskirts of Quetta in restive Balochistan province.

At least two of his children appear to support his goals, however, including his eldest child Shagufta Nasreen.

“A large family is like Allah bestowing a case of mangoes,” the 15-year-old explained, adding that she hopes to go into medicine like her father.

Jan’s eldest son, 13-year-old Mohammed Esa, also wanted to emulate the patriarch – but he has set his sights even higher, resolving that he will have more than 100 children.

Jan, who claims he is a qualified medical technician, runs an unregulated clinic where he treats people for minor ailments such as headaches, adding that as he is “serving humanity” he charges just 250 rupees ($2.30) per patient while providing his services to the poor for free.

He also runs a seminary funded by donations where nearly 400 students – including four of his sons – are studying the Quran, and says he pays for 20 of his 35 children to attend private school.

The household expenditures of his growing empire, however, can reach up to 120,000 rupees per month – more than ten times Pakistan’s average – in a neighbourhood that lacks basic amenities such as tap water and sewage, he said.

He insisted he has never faced any financial problems trying to care for his brood, but did not explain how he could cover all the expenses with just pay for his medical work.

Jan conceded that his needs may increase as his children grow and so is calling on the government to allocate funds for the food, education, and healthcare of his family – a request that is unlikely to be fulfilled.

But Jan has faith. If the government does not listen, he said, he trusts in God to provide.

Pakistan has the highest birth rate in South Asia – around three children per woman according to World Bank and government figures – though an accurate census has not been conducted in more than 30 years.

Jan put his fertility down to daily doses of fresh and dry fruits, milk and meat; as well as reciting the Holy Quran and praying five times a day.

While his eldest child is 15, his youngest is just a few weeks old. At the beginning of March he was still a father of merely 33, but that month two more daughters were born within six days of one another, he says.

His marriages were all arranged by his parents. “I married the first one…when I was 26 years old, and the next year wedded the other two within a gap of five months,” he told AFP.

His next wedding, however, could be arranged via Facebook: since his story aired in Pakistani media, he says, he has had a slew of marriage offers via the social network.

A large poster on the wall at Jan’s house carries the symbol he used when he ran for provincial office in 2013: a double bed, which, he told AFP, “denotes special pleasure and meaning in my life”.

That time at least, his ambition fell short: he garnered 980 votes, not nearly enough to win.

Tokyo – The father of a seven-year-old Japanese boy who went missing for nearly a week after his parents abandoned him in a mountain forest as punishment apologised on Friday hours after his son was found safe.

“My excessive act forced my son to have a painful time,” Yamato Tanooka’s father told reporters outside the hospital where his son was being treated.

Yamato was discovered in a building on a Japanese military base around 4 km (2.5 miles) from where he disappeared last Saturday after his parents left him by the side of a road, reportedly as discipline for throwing stones at cars.

“One of our soldiers was preparing for drills this morning and opened the door of a building on the base, and there he was,” a member of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces told NHK national television.

“When he asked ‘are you Yamato?’ the boy said yes. Then he said he was hungry, so the soldier gave him some water, bread and riceballs.”

Yamato was taken to hospital for checks but was healthy except for low body temperature and would be kept overnight as a precaution, a doctor told a news conference.

A tearful Takayuki Tanooka, the boy’s father, thanked rescuers for their efforts and apologised for causing trouble.

“We’ve reflected on what we did and it was really excessive,” Tanooka said, his voice shaking.

“We – well, we loved him before, but I hope to give him even more attention now,” he said.

“I deeply apologise to people at his school, people in the rescue operation, and everybody for causing them trouble,” he added.

Yamato’s parents first said he disappeared while they foraged for edible plants, but later told police they had left him by the road to discipline him after he threw stones at people and cars.

They said when they drove back a few minutes later the boy had disappeared.

The area is so remote that residents of the region say they rarely go through it.

The boy somehow managed to survive for nearly a week in the densely forested area, where night temperatures fell as low as 7 degrees Celsius (45 Fahrenheit) and heavy rain had fallen, despite wearing only a t-shirt and jeans.

Yamato said he had “walked through the mountains” until he found the building, which was unlocked. He drank water from a nearby faucet and slept on mattresses spread on the floor.

The search for Yamato gripped Japan. At its peak, it involved several hundred shouting rescuers beating through heavy bush, as well as soldiers on motorbikes and police on horseback.

News programmes gave regular updates throughout the week, and NHK sent a news flash when he was found.

The incident set off a flood of social media comment, with most of those posting comments lambasting the parents for their carelessness. On Friday, most expressed relief.

“To be honest, I was certain of a sad result. As the parent of a 7-year-old myself, all I can say is that I am really, really happy,” one wrote.

Boy, 7, missing after parents abandon him in forests with bears

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SEOUL – North Korea has again accused the South of “premeditated” abduction, following the latest defection of North Korean staff working at a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China.

The three North Koreans arrived in Seoul on Wednesday – the second such group defection this year after a dozen employees of another restaurant in China defected to the South in April.

“This incident, too, was the organised and premeditated abduction by gangsters of the puppet National Intelligence Service of South Korea,” a spokesman for the North Korean Red Cross said in a statement.

The statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency late Thursday, claimed there were “sufficient materials” to prove a well-planned, concerted operation to abduct the workers from the restaurant in Weinan, in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi.

It said members of the South’s spy agency had “lured” the three women who were taken south and spirited across the border with Laos and then into Thailand.

“The allurement and abduction clearly proves that the puppet forces of south Korea are the most hideous human rights abusers,” the statement said, demanding the immediate return of the three women.

The South Korean government estimates that Pyongyang rakes in around US$10 million (S$14 million) every year from about 130 restaurants it operates – with mostly North Korean staff – in 12 countries, including neighbouring China.

Tough United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea after its January nuclear test significantly curtailed the isolated state’s ability to earn hard currency, making the restaurants an even more important source of income than before.

There have been reports of staff not being paid, with restaurants pressured into increasing their regular remittances to Pyongyang.

Since the first group defection of restaurant workers in April, North Korean state media has repeatedly run emotional interviews with the 12 women’s relatives still in North Korea, urging their immediate return.

South Korea has rejected the North’s “kidnapping” claims and refused Pyongyang’s demands to allow the women’s parents to travel to Seoul to meet their daughters.

Seoul has also ordered its embassies overseas to be extra vigilant to the threat of revenge kidnappings of South Korean citizens living abroad.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression at home to settle in the capitalist South.

But group defections are rare, especially by staff who work in the North Korea-themed restaurants overseas and who are handpicked from families considered “loyal” to the regime.