SHC allows teenager Dua Zahra to decide her fate

SHC allows teenager Dua Zahra to decide her fate

Karachi (Web Desk): The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday allowed Dua Zahra to decided whether she wants to live with her husband or she wants to go with her parents.

In a three-page written order, Justice Junaid Ghaffar of the SHC said the court reached the verdict in line with the testimonies. "In light of all the evidence, this is not a case of kidnapping."

While issuing a written judgment, court disposed of the petition for recovery of Dua Zehra and also directed to produce the girl before the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The SHC further directed her to submit a challan after progress in the case against her husband Zaheer Ahmed.

The court said that in the light of the affidavit of Dua, the court has come to the conclusion that there is no case of kidnapping after considering all the evidence.

During the hearing, police presented Dua and her husband Zaheer before the court after the ossification test as per the court’s orders passed in the last hearing.

The SHC had ordered the authorities to conduct an ossification test to determine Dua Zahra's age. She had claimed to be 18 years old, old enough to marry out of her own free will.

The ossification test report, however, suggested Dua is 16 or 17 years old. The report was also confirmed by a radiologist, Dr Saba Jamil. However, Dua's father Kazmi has expressed reservations over the medical report of his daughter and termed it "false".
He challenged the report in court.

Before announcing the judgments, the court permitted the parents of Dua to meet their daughter for "ten minutes" earlier in the day.

On Monday, Dua refused to meet her parents. It was the first time she was presented before the SHC after she was recovered by the Punjab police more than one-and-a-half months into her mysterious disappearance.

Dua Zahra had mysteriously gone missing from Karachi in April but later declared that she had run away from her home to marry 21-year-old Zaheer Ahmed.