father of Dua Zehra as a teenage girl who missing from Karachi in April and was taken out of Punjab earlier this month. on Appeal filed on Saturday in The Supreme Court is challenging the ruling of the High Court of Sindh, which stated that his daughter was free to decide her own fate.
On June 8, Sindh High Court (SHC) allowed Dua to decide who she is wanted live or go together with after she refused on Oath stolen by her supposedly husband. Subsequently, the Sindh Police on Thursday recommended that the local court hear the case filed by Dua. parents be canceled given that the charges of her abduction and underage marriage have not been proven.
Her father, Mehdi Kazmi, filed a petition challenging the SHC verdict in Supreme Court today through it counsel who named Sindh government inspector general of police, senior superintendent of Police (East), Al-Falah Police Station house officer, Violent Crime Squad Investigator and alleged husband Zahir Ahmed as respondents.
The petition claimed that SHC made a mistake in law, releasing a minor Dua instead of placing her in legal custody of guardian. He said that the court could only set a person of age at large, while minors had to be placed under the legal guardianship of a guardian.
“In this case, the respected Supreme Court of Sindh violated this fundamental principle, namely, by affirming that the kidnapped indeed minor of 18. Supreme Court… set her free instead of placing her in legal custody of her guardians,” the petition reads.
It stated that the court had made another mistake in relying on Dua’s statement and also preferring to rely on “wrong” bone ossification test an opinion issued by a single medical examiner rather than a medical board, as opposed to registered documentary evidence relating to age of stolen.
He argued that when such documentary evidence as Nadra’s birth certificate and passport, which stated that she was 14 years old, were available then it couldn’t be overruled by a medical opinion in the form of ossification of the bone test which is “merely expert opinion and has a margin of error of one up to two years.”
As for Dua’s statement, the petition says the court erred in relying on this, since it was taken immediately after it was presented to the SHC, and the court did not consider that the statement could be result of influence, inducement and seduction, given that not only was Dua brought from Punjab to SHC by with Ahmed, but also that she remained under his permanent illegal imprisonment for almost two months.
“The venerable high court erred in law, ordering the investigator to attach a certificate of age and a statement on the oath in investigation of real case, which in effect prejudicial to the investigation because the respected High Court itself gave credibility to the above documents, relying directly on on them for release of the kidnapped.
So the petition prayed, the highest court should suspend SHC order, order Dua recovery and return her to custody of her father or state before the case final disposal. it added who orders for formation of medical board should also be given for preparation of its proper ossification test report.
