Teenage girl Dua Zehra on Wednesday met with her parents after directives from the Sindh High Court (SHC) as the family later claimed that she expressed her desire to go with them.
The girl along with her alleged husband appeared before the court after a medical examination which stated that she is aged between 16 to 17-year-old.
During the hearing, the counsel representing the father of the girl said that they wanted to present some documents to prove her age at 14.
The SHC judge, however, rejected the plea and said that the case pertains to her recovery and now the matter should be raised with the trial court. The court also allowed the parents to meet the girl.
A meeting was later arranged between the parents and Dua Zehra and later the police took her along with them. “We met our daughter in the chamber and she wanted to go with us,” the mother of Zehra said and added that they also asked the judge to take another statement from her but he refused.
The father also appeared before the judge and asked him to review his decision as the girl wanted to go with them. The court, however, rejected the plea and said that the girl has given a statement on oath that she did not want to go with her parents.
“The statement on oath has an importance and we cannot believe your words when the girl has given a written statement in this regard,” the court said while admonishing the father.
Meanwhile, A counsel representing the father of Dua Zehra, Mehdi Kazmi, has raised objections over the medical certificate determining her age and demanded to form a medical board for it.
The counsel, Advocate Altaf Khoso, said that a medical board should be established to determine her age as determining the age through a bones’ test could not be considered efficient.
“The NADRA record is a documentary proof that carries the date, time and year of the birth,” he said and added that they have challenged the legal status of the medical examination.
A medical board constituted to ascertain the age of Dua Zehra has finalised its report and sent it to the Karachi police, which will submit it before the Sindh High Court (SHC) bench hearing the case.
“Dua Zehra is aged between 16 to 17 years,” the medical board report said according to the sources. As per Dua’s father, her age is 14 years, while Dua Zehra in her statement before the SHC said she is 18 years old.
The medical tests to verify the age of the allegedly 14 year-girl, who had run away from her house and reportedly married a boy from Lahore, were conducted on the orders of the SHC.
According to the Anti Violent Crime Cell (AVCC), multiple tests including the bone were conducted in the Civil Hospital Karachi.
Dua Zehra and her reported husband were presented before the Sindh High Court on June 6, 2022. Dua had refused to meet her parents amid the hearing of the case.
During the hearing, the girl denied being abducted by Zaheer Ahmed and said that she has married him willingly. ‘I am 18-year-old,’ replied Dua when a judge asked her about her age.
The court had sent her to a shelter home, ordering medical tests to determine her age.
