An eight month old baby was sold by his parents in the Ladhewala Warraich area six days ago.
Police recovered the child after a raid on Tuesday.
Ghulam Rasool, a tailor who resides in Qila Mian Singh, and his wife Khalida Bibi sold their baby to Shaukat Rehmani, a resident of Bhano Pindi village in Daska. Rehmani was reported to have had no children.
Khalida Bibi had been suffering from heart problems for the last eight months and had been under treatment at the Gujranwala Civil Hospital and Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore.
Rasool had been unable to work for the same period because he was taking care of his wife.
Khalida Bibi told The Express Tribune that she had seven children Mujeeb, 12, Muneeba, 9, Hamid, 8, twins Subhan and Sikandar, 2, and 8-month-old Faizan.
She said she sold Faizan to pay for doctors fees and purchase medicines.
Ghulam Rasool said, “We could not take care of such a young child due to our poverty. He would keep crying.”
He said they had been unable to pay rent for the last eight months for their residence.
Gujranwala DCO Chaudhry Muhammad Amin got in touch with Rasool and asked him the details of their condition. District Officer (Coordination) Waseem Abbas also visited Rasool’s home.
Abbas said the government had decided to pay Khalida Bibi’s medical expenses and other debts.
The Ladhewala Warraich SHO raided the home and took Rasool into custody.
The SHO said Rasool had not been arrested but was being questioned so that police could recover the child. He said they later raided the home of Shaukat Rehmani and recovered the child.
‘Sell me a baby’
Separately, a woman in the Faisalabad district was reported to have posed as a buyer of children at a public hospital.
Kalsoom was caught at the Noorpur Civil Hospital distributing pamphlets stating she would buy a child for Rs300,000. She was accompanied by her two children.
She was caught by the hospital administration and handed over to Civil Lines police. Civil Lines SHO Imran said the pamphlets were recovered from the woman. He said the woman had claimed that her elder sister did not have children and she was looking for a child for her to adopt.Police are investigating whether she was part of a bigger gang.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
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If you can't look after a child then stop pro-creating. But then I guess some things are easier said than done.
If this story does not bring tears in eyes, we need to assess our direction as society. This guy is so depressed for medical expenses that he decided to sell his child. Only parents can tell that this is hardest decision of one's life.
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