The case was filed a day after a medical board established to ascertain Dua’s age determined that she was between 15 and 16 years old; the petition’s hearing date has not yet been set.
While her parents stated that Dua is a minor, Dua has insisted that she is 18 years old and that she freely chose to be married to Zaheer.
Mehdi Ali Kazmi, the father of Dua, said in the new argument that his daughter had been married off as a kid and that Zaheer had taken her to Punjab to get married, which was against the law.
Respondents included the federation of Pakistan, Zaheer, the inspector general of Sindh police, the additional inspector general, the station house officer (Alfalah police station), DSP Shoukat Ali Shahani, and others.
In the petition, it was said that a previous medical board established to ascertain Dua’s age had determined that she was about 17 years old.
However, according to a different medical board’s findings, Dua is under the age of 16 and her marriage is prohibited by the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2016, according to the appeal.
It said that because Dua was a juvenile under 16 and appeared to have been the victim of kidnapping, she “ought to be restored to the care of her natural guardian, i.e. the petitioner.”
It continued by stating that Zaheer will be held accountable for any sexual acts he conducted with Dua under Section 375(v) of the Pakistan Penal Code ((rape: with or without her permission when she is under sixteen years of age)).
In order to guarantee that his daughter is returned to her parents, Kazmi pleaded with the court to order the respondents to rescue his daughter from Zaheer’s “illegal custody.”
In addition, he asked the court to prevent Dua from receiving a passport and to prevent her from leaving Pakistan “via any travel route.”
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In a first information report submitted on April 16, Dua’s parents claimed that their daughter had been abducted while leaving the house to get rid of some garbage. Authorities were alerted when the event sparked a public uproar, particularly on social media.
On April 26, the adolescent girl was retrieved from Okara after over ten days. Dua had claimed in a video statement that day that she had not been abducted and had married Zaheer “of her own free will.”
She said that she had left her home voluntarily. “I chose to be married freely. Nobody compelled me. With my hubby here, I’m content. Don’t worry me, for the love of God, she had said.
Additionally, Dua said that her parents had lied to her about her age.
She and Zaheer then petitioned a Lahore district and sessions court on behalf of Dua’s father and cousin.
Additionally, the police had submitted a court petition requesting that Dua be sent to Darul Aman. The magistrate, however, turned down the plea and told the adolescent “could go anywhere she wanted to.”
Dua’s parents, on the other hand, were sure that their daughter had been abducted and claimed she had been coerced into making the allegation.
In May, the father of the youngster also appealed to the SHC in opposition to the Punjab court’s rulings. According to Kazmi’s declaration in the petition, Dua was 13 years old and it was against the law to marry a child in Sindh under the 2013 Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act.
He had requested the judge to appoint a doctor to examine his daughter. The Karachi police continually failed to appear the adolescent in court over the next few days, infuriating the judges.
In order to ascertain Dua’s age, the SHC had requested an ossification on June 6. She was also temporarily placed in a shelter home after refusing to meet her parents.
The youngster was free to choose who she wanted to live with, the court concluded two days later. The IO presented his report at the court together with an age certification from the police surgeon’s office, which said that the claimed abductee’s bone age was between 16 and 17 years old in accordance with medical experts and the radiology department of the Civil Hospital.
According to the bench’s ruling, the petition had achieved its goal because it simply inquired about the location of the purportedly abducted child.
Later, Kazmi appealed the decision to the SC, which in turn instructed him to contact the appropriate authorities to request the creation of a medical board. A Karachi court magistrate subsequently mandated the creation of another board to establish Dua’s age.
The medical board had determined that Dua was between the ages of 15 and 16 on Monday.
