KARACHI: A Pakistani court on Wednesday allowed a teenage girl to decide if she wanted to go with her parents or husband while disposing of a case that divided public opinion on whether the girl was kidnapped or if she ran away of her own choice after her disappearance in April from her home in Karachi.
The parents of Syeda Dua Zehra Kazmi filed a first information report (FIR) on April 16 alleging that their daughter had been kidnapped after she went to throw trash outside their home in the provincial capital of Sindh. The incident unleashed widespread outcry online and on media, prompting authorities to take notice and launch a search.
Kazmi’s parents say she is underage but in a video statement released ten days after her disappearance, the girl said she was an adult and had not been kidnapped but had married a man, Zaheer Ahmed, in Punjab of her “free will.”
The Sindh High Court ordered a medical test to determine the age of the girl which showed that she was somewhere between 16 and 17 years old. However, the finding was disputed by Kazmi’s family and a provincial minister Shehla Raza who said the test was performed by a junior doctor who disregarded regular procedure.
The court made the age certificate part of the record while directing the investigation officer to include it in a supplementary challan to be submitted in a trial court along with the girl’s statement during the previous proceedings.
“This Petition stands disposed of whereas, the alleged abductee/minor Dua E Zohra Kazmi pursuant to her statement on Oath and Age Certificate is set at liberty to decide as to with whom she intends to reside and go along,” the two-judge bench of the court said in a written order.
The court maintained the petition had served its purpose since its objective was to determine Kazmi’s whereabouts who had been produced before it during the last hearing. It added the girl had said on oath that she was neither abducted nor kidnapped but had married Ahmed by her own choice.
The ruling further said the court could not determine factual disputes of age since it could affect and prejudice the interest of any of the parties.
However, it pointed out the aggrieved parties were at liberty to dispute the validity of the marriage in the trial court.
During the last hearing, Kazmi accused her father of lodging a false kidnapping complaint with the police while telling the high court she wanted to go with her husband.
However, her parents claimed on Wednesday she had changed her mind and wanted to record a new statement after the court asked the girl to meet her family in a judge’s chamber.
“She told me that she wanted to go home [during the meeting],” her father Mehdi Ali said. “As I asked her to record the statement before the judge, police and a man in plain cloths took her away.”
Ali maintained that he ran back and pleaded before the judge to record her statement, but his request was turned down.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, the provincial minister, Shehla Raza, who was deeply involved in the case, said she had raised several objections over the age certificate which was issued by a junior medicolegal official without due procedure.
“The medical board was not set up by the police surgeon, though it was required,” she noted. “What is the legal value of this certificate when it does not have the signature of the police surgeon as convener?”
“I have been repeatedly saying the girl may have left the house on her own but she could not have traveled to Lahore by herself,” she continued. “The girl told me that she booked a taxi and went there when she had no money. How is that possible?”
Raza acknowledged that Kazmi had said she did not want to go with her parents during the last hearing.
“Now that she has changed her mind, she has been taken away,” the minister added.
