Police unable to find any trace of ‘tortured’ child maid

Several raids conducted in multiple cities to recover girl, her parents

ISLAMABAD: Over 24 hours after directives were issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad Police have been unsuccessful in tracing the whereabouts of a 10-year-old girl despite conducting multiple raids in the twin cities and in other areas of Punjab.

The girl had been forced to work as a housemaid and was allegedly tortured by the wife of a sitting Islamabad district and sessions judge. The apex court on Friday had ordered the police to produce the girl before it on January 11.



Subsequently, Islamabad DIG-Operations Kashif Alam had constituted ‘specialised’ teams to trace and recover the child and her parents.

On Saturday, however, police said they had raided multiple locations in Lahore, Faisalabad, Jaranwala, Islamabad and Rawalpindi but have so far been unable to locate the child or her parents.

“Police are looking for the minor girl and her parents and a number of houses were searched in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other districts but no recovery or arrests have been made so far,” a police officer told The Express Tribune.

On December 29, Industrial Area police had recovered the 10-year-old *T from the house of Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan in injured condition amid allegations that the child, who worked as a housemaid in the judge’s house, had been tortured.

The same day, *T told a female magistrate that she had been working at the judge’s house for nearly two years and that she had been tortured. The child said that Maheen Zafar, the judge’s wife, burnt one of her hands on a cooking stove after a broom went missing. She said she was kept locked in a store alongside a water tank and was also threatened.

On the basis of her complaint, the police had booked the judge and his wife.

A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and Justice Maqbool Baqar will take up the case on January 11.

Child cruelty charges

The Attorney General had on Friday informed a division bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Maqbool Baqar, that the police were “thinking” of inserting section 328-A (cruelty to a child) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and section 14 of the Employment of Child Act, 1991 in the FIR against the judge and his wife.

Judge Khurram and his wife, Maheen, were booked for allegedly torturing a child maid working in their house.

Though the father of the girl ‘forgave’ the judge and his wife “in the name of God” but the SC took suo motu notice of the matter and exercised parental jurisdiction in the case.

Section 328-A states “whoever willfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or does an act of omission or commission, that results in or have potential to harm or injure the child by causing physical or psychological injury to him shall be punished with, imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than one year and may extend up to three years or liable to fine which may not be less than one hundred thousand rupees and may extend up to three hundred thousand rupees or with both.”



Section 14 of the Employment of Child Act, 1991, states “whoever employs any child or permits any child to work in contravention of the provisions of section 3 shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to Rs20,000 rupees or with both.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2017.