Punjab

Forced marriage: Eight-year-old’s ‘sale’ prevented by police, neighbours

Police and neighours foil father’s attempt to sell daughter in marriage to a 52-year-old man.

Express February 21, 2011

QUAIDABAD: An eight-year-old girl was handed in her uncle’s custody on Sunday after Quaidabad police and some neighours foiled her father’s attempt to sell her in marriage to a 52-year-old man.

Her father Pervaiz Rahmat, Groom Muhammad Sher and others gathered at the marriage ceremony in Chak 33 DB fled from the scene on police’s arrival.

SHO Kamran Zahoor conducted the raid after the child’s uncle, Allah Ditta, and Pakistan Internation Human Rights Organisation, a local non-government organisation, president Muneer Lalani informed the police about the scheduled marriage ceremony.

Allah Dita said he was contacted by some neighbours and informed about his brother’s plan to sell the child for Rs150,000 to Talagang resident Sher. He said his Rahmat must have been encouraged by his second wife to sell the child. He said Rahmat had re-married after the child’s mother left him and contracted another marriage six years ago. The SHO said he could not register a case as no crime had yet been committed. He handed the child into Ditta’s custody as he was her only relative.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2011.

COMMENTS (6)

Gerard Willey | 13 years ago | Reply My warmest congratulations to all who prevented this outrage.

Reeba | 13 years ago | Reply Why are you criticizing the maulvis, when the prophet Mohammed(PBUH) himself did it. Remember Ayesha?

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arman lakhani | 13 years ago | Reply @tanvir jamal: It's not because no one wants to jail a maulvi ,it's because no man in pakistan has the courage to jail a maulvi.

tanvir jamal | 13 years ago | Reply why are never the maulvis caught & jailed for life in these cases of paedophilia?? These maulvis promote this sick act under the cover of religion & then get away with their crime. Rarely is a maulvi caught & never has a maulvi been convicted & jailed for promoting this perversion. Our people need to wake up & realise that just because someone has a beard,doesn't automatically make him a "good" person. A lot of time these maulvis under cover of their beards do the most heinous & depraved things & then get away because no one wants to jail a maulvi.

abdul moiz | 13 years ago | Reply In our society sadly there's no concept of paedophilia.Over here we think of sex with 9,10 year old girls as normal behaviour instead of condemning this sick,vile act as an animal act.No man engaging in sex with underage girls is fit to be called a human being,he belongs in the category of animals. Atleast in the west they treat their paedophiles as complete outcasts,the media vilifies them to the extreme,rightly nobody lets them live in their neighbourhood. But over here we treat cases of paedophilia as normal rape cases when they are not. Having sex with children is the most vile crime on earth.The maulvis advocating & justifying it deserved to be hanged as they are encouraging the male population to indulge in animal behaviour & not human behaviour

abdul jabbar | 13 years ago | Reply What to expect when our maulvis very proudly & publicly preach that men are allowed to marry & sleep with 9 year old children!!! I've heard a lot of maulvis justify paedophilia in the name of religion !! The maulvis cite some religious precedent to encourage paedophilia in our society.

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