A big relief for Dua Zahra, the Karachi girl who had gone to Punjab to marry of her free will, and her husband Zaheer as the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday rejected her father’s petition against the Sindh High Court (SHC) verdict and disposed of the case when the latter told the court that he wanted to withdraw it, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A three-member bench of the SC’s Karachi Registry, consisting of Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, in their remarks said that Dua was a human, and that she should be treated like a human being and not herded like cattle.
Now when she had married the boy of her choice, the apex court could not do anything in the case, they told Mehdi Kazmi, her father.
They also made it clear to him that his daughter’s case was by no means that of ‘kidnapping’ or ‘harassment’.
The SC judges also conveyed to him that even if a girl, under 16 years of age, contracted marriage, her Nikah remained valid. It remains valid even under the law passed by the Sindh Assembly, they said, and added what they could do when her girl had refused to go with him even after the meeting.
The SC also directed Kazmi to approach appropriate forums if he wanted the constitution of a medical board.
The court told the petitioner that the case did not fall in its purview.
Later talking to the media, Mehdi Kazmi’s counsel Jibran Nasir admitted that Dua’s nikah nama was not forged one. “At no forum has it been proved ‘fake’,” he added.
Now, he added, he and his client could approach the relevant forums for the formation of a medical board. “We will raise the age factor of the girl in the trial court afresh,” he informed.
“We will request the secretary health for the formation of a new board. And we are pretty much sure that its report will be in our favour,” he concluded.
The Sindh High Court had on June 8, 2022 allowed Dua to make a decision as per her free will, adding she can live with whosoever she chooses.
However, the court after observing progress in case against Dua's husband directed police to submit a challan against Zaheer in the court.
In the three-page order, Justice Junaid Ghaffar said the court had reached the verdict in line with the testimonies. "In light of all the evidence, this is not the case of kidnapping,” he remarked.
Reporters: Bilal Ahmed, Mumtaz Jamali