SHC announces verdict in Dua Zehra case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday announced a reserved verdict in Dua Zehra case, allowing the Karachi teenage girl to decide whether she wants to live with her parents or go with husband, ARY News reported.

The SHC had reserved its verdict earlier today.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, issued written order in Dua Zehra case, the Karachi teenager girl who had gone missing from her hometown Karachi and later surfaced in Punjab.

The SHC, in its written verdict, observed that no evidence was found that the girl had been abducted and stopped authorities concerned from registering abduction cases.

“No evidence was found of the girl’s abduction,” the court ruled.

The three-page written verdict ordered the investigation officer (IO) to submit interim challan and medical record of Zehra.

Read More: DUA ZEHRA CASE: FATHER CHALLENGES AGE VERIFICATION REPORT IN COURT

The court ruled that it was the responsibility of Sindh government to produce Dua Zehra before Lahore High Court (LHC). “The trial court will continue investigation as per the law in the case,” reads the verdict.

The SHC also disposed of the petition filed by parents into the alleged abduction of Karachi teenage girl.

Today’s proceedings 

During today’s hearing, the girl along with her alleged husband appeared before the court after a medical examination which stated that she is aged between 16 to 17-year-old.

As the hearing went underway, the counsel representing the father of the girl said that they wanted to present some documents to prove her age at 14.

The SHC judge, however, rejected the plea and said that the case pertains to her recovery and now the matter should be raised with the trial court. The court also allowed the parents to meet the girl.

A meeting was later arranged between the parents and Dua Zehra and later the police took her along with them. “We met our daughter in the chamber and she wanted to go with us,” the mother of Zehra said and added that they also asked the judge to take another statement from her but he refused.

The father also appeared before the judge and asked him to review his decision as the girl wanted to go with them. The court, however, rejected the plea and said that the girl has given a statement on oath that she did not want to go with her parents.

“The statement on oath has an importance and we cannot believe your words when the girl has given a written statement in this regard,” the court said while admonishing the father.

The case

It is pertinent to mention here that Dua Zehra’s family had approached police, hours after she went missing from near her house in Alfalah Town in Karachi on April 16, and had appealed through a number of channels for help in finding their daughter.

Days after disappearance, police found out that Dua Zehra had married a boy named Zaheer in Lahore.

A Lahore court allowed Dua to live with her husband. The Model Town court, while issuing verdict on police’s plea to send the girl (14-year-old according to her father’s claim and 18-year-old as per her own) to Dar-ul-Aman, rejected the police request and allowed Dua Zehra to live with her husband Zaheer Ahmed.

She was then produced before SHC where the court ordered a medical examination of the girl. The medical examination stated that she is aged between 16 to 17-year-old.