A Pakistani woman arrested for killing and cooking her husband had planned to make a korma from parts of his arm and leg, authorities said.

Zainab Bibi, 32, was arrested along with her nephew Zaheer, 22, after police found body parts belonging to her husband, Ahmed Abbas, stuffed into a box and lying in two bowls.

Police also found Bibi cooking a korma from the flesh of her husband because she believed it was the most practical way to dispose of his body in the Shah Faisal colony of Pakistan's southern city Karachi.

Reports suggest that Bibi drugged her husband by putting sedatives in his drink and then strangled him with a rope when the drugs took effect.

Zainab had been living in the house with her 18-year-old daughter Sonia, from a previous marriage, and Ahmed Abbas, whom she had married five years ago.

It has been suggested that Bibi killed her husband because he wanted to have a sex with her daughter. Bibi claims that she had stopped him from molesting her daughter on several occasions.

Suspicions were raised by neighbours after the stench of blood of flesh were being emitted from the house.

Bibi was quoted in the Pakistani paper The Express Tribune as saying from prison: "When he finally died, I felt shudders of fear for the first time.

"I didn't have the courage to approach his body for the next half an hour.

"It occurred to me that if I cooked the body in parts, with spices and aromatic ingredients, that would curb the stench."

She told ARY News, a domestic Pakistani satellite channel: "I killed my husband before he dared to touch my daughter."

The rest of her husband's body parts were discovered in an aluminium trunk, which was later transferred for a post mortem examination.