Dua Zehra can decide who she wants to live with, rules SHC

Our Correspondent

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) ruled on Wednesday that Karachi teenager Dua Zehra can decide on her own whether she wants to live with her husband, or parents.

During the hearing earlier today, the high court had allowed the parents to meet their daughter for 10 minutes, after reserving its decision on the teenager’s recovery plea.

Besides the parents, the girl’s maternal aunt was also part of the meeting that took place in the court chambers.

However, after the meeting, the girl’s father, Mehdi Ali Kazmi, reached up to the judge’s rostrum and claimed that the girl in the private meeting had said that she wanted to go home.

The court questioned his statements and maintained that Dua Zehra had signed an affidavit before the court saying that she did not want to go with her parents.

“Despite the affidavit, you are asking us to issue another order,” the court remarked.

Dua Zehra’s father reiterated his claim, much to the chagrin and disbelief of the high court.

According to judicial sources, the parents’ claim was false. Apparently the parents had kept begging Dua to go home with them but she sat quiet, and did not even look at her parents.

They further cited the girl’s refusal to converse with her parents as a reason for the meeting to end before a full 10 minutes.

Medical report suggests ‘wrong’ age

Talking to the media following the hearing, Mehdi Kazmi stated that the medical report ordained by the court which showed his daughter to be of 16-17 years of age was “wrong” and that he had “challenged the medical report”.

His counsel contended that the medical report was “based on mala fide” and that they had official documents showing Dua’s real age.

He said no medical board was formed to determine Dua’s age and that a “junior doctor made her medical report”.

Talking to the media after the hearing, provincial minister Shehla Raza said that before today, when the girl had appeared before the court, there was an order to undergo medical examination to determine her age. “We have objected to the girl’s medical report,” she added.

The minister said that the police surgeon was asked for an age certificate, but the certificate does not even have the police surgeon’s signature. Shehla added that the signature on medical certificate is not of Dua Zehra, it is someone else’s. “The teeth have been declared to be of a minor in the certificate,” the minister claimed.

“I have met the girl. She cannot go alone,” Shehla said, adding that the girl had at the last hearing said that she did not want to go with her parents. However, she added that Dua did today say that she wanted to go with them. “But was not allowed to go,” the minister claimed.

LHC objects to petition

In a separate petition, the Lahore High Court (LHC) raised objection on a petition of Dua Zehra’s father regarding a harassment petition filed by the girl’s mother-in-law.

The father of Dua Zehra – a teen who was allegedly kidnapped and married – had filed a petition in the high court requesting it to reject the mother-in-law’s petition.

The petition maintained that Dua Zehra had been presented before the Sindh High Court (SHC), therefore the petition filed in the LHC had become inactive and that there was no justification in presenting Dua before the LHC.

The petition requested that the court reject the mother-in-law’s pending petition.

Dua Zehra’s mother-in-law, Noor Bibi’s, request regarding harassment by the police is currently under hearing.

‘Dua Zehra not kidnapped’

A day earlier, the SHC had issued a written order in the case, observing that there was no evidence to suggest that the girl had been abducted.

“I got married of my own free will. No one kidnapped me; I want to go with my husband Zaheer and do not wish to see my parents,” revealed Zehra in a statement recorded under oath before the SHC.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, in its written order, said that the girl stated that she was 17 to 18 years old and had married out of her own free will.

The bench observed that Dua claims that her father had filed a false case of kidnapping, though he knew that she had gone on her own free will. “No evidence was found of the girl’s abduction,” the court remarked.