Underage marriage case: SHC hands over Karachi teenage girl to parents

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday temporarily handed over Karachi teenage girl, who was found to have married a man in Punjab despite being underage and currently residing in a shelter home, to her parents, ARY News reported.

The Karachi girl had gone from Karachi to Lahore to get married to man named Zaheer. However, her father, Syed Mehdi Kazmi, challenged the nuptials under the Child Marriage Act.

A petition regarding the alleged abduction of the teen was heard today by a bench headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro.

During today’s proceedings, the teenage expressed her wish to go with her parents before the court.

To this, Zaheer’s lawyer urged the court to stop the Karachi girl from going abroad.

At this, the SHC handed over the temporary custody of the girl to her parents against surety bonds worth Rs1 million.

The court disposed of the petition and handed over the case to trial court to decide on permanent custody of the Karachi girl.

The case

The incident came into the limelight when teenage girl, Dua Zehra, went missing from her house in Karachi on April 16 and later surfaced and announced to marry Zaheer in Lahore.

Ahmed and others were booked by the police for kidnaping an underage girl from Karachi. According to the police, Ahmed kidnapped the underage girl in the Al-Falah Colony area with abetment of other co-accused and married her in Lahore.

In July, the Lahore court allowed Dua to live with her husband. The Model Town court, while issuing a verdict on the 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 examiner stated that she is aged between 16 and to 17-year-old.

She was then shifted to shelter home on SHC orders.