Karachi: The Sindh High Court (SHC) Thursday announced its verdict in the high-profile kidnapping case of Dua Zehra and ordered authorities to shift her to Karachi.
Dua Zehra had mysteriously disappeared from Karachi in April, but it was later reported she had run away from home to marry a 21-year-old Zaheer Ahmed.
The SHC had summoned Zaheer to court through a notice.
Zaheer Ahmad was produced before the court at the outset of the hearing of the case filed by Dua Zahra’s father, Mehdi Kazmi, accusing Zaheer of kidnapping Dua from her house in Karachi’s Alfalah neighbourhood.
Read: Zaheer was in Karachi when Dua Zehra fled home: Police
During the hearing, Justice Kalhoro remarked that Dua Zahra must be brought to Karachi, and the case would be heard here as she went missing from this city.
“There are shelter homes in Karachi as well where security arrangements will be made. There will be no threat to the girl in Karachi,” the judge remarked.
Read: Dua Zehra secured at Dar ul Aman; Police searches for Zaheer
He asked Zaheer’s lawyer if he wanted Dua to not get shifted to Karachi. At this, the lawyer said that the girl could not be shifted to Karachi or forced to meet anyone if she doesn’t want to.
“Even the court cannot tell the girl to meet anyone,” he said.
At this, the court remarked that Dua Zahra was a minor. Therefore, her statement has no legal value. It, however, observed that no order to give the girl into her parents’ custody is being issued.
Meanwhile, the lawyers representing Sindh and the federal governments also favoured shifting Dua Zahra to Karachi.
