Top court overrules ‘pardon’ to child maid ‘tormentors’

Bench decides to exercise parental jurisdiction, asks police to present the girl on Wednesday

ISLAMABAD: Overruling the ‘pardon’ granted to a judge by the ‘parents’ of a child maid subjected to ‘torture and abuse, the Supreme Court decided on Friday to exercise parental jurisdiction in the case.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who described the torture of 10-year-old Tayyaba as a ‘sordid incident’, ordered a full investigation to be held by next Wednesday.



“No agreement could be made in matters related to fundamental human rights,” he said. “We are parents of the child. Fundamental rights of a child cannot be compounded. We are concerned about it,” he added.

“We need the real truth and nothing less. Collect the evidence and submit a comprehensive report,” Justice Nisar directed the DIG Operations Islamabad, Kashif Alam. The bench also ordered the Islamabad police to complete the investigation within five days.

The case that spotlights rampant child labour in the country has shocked many after social media images allegedly showing injuries to the girl’s face and hands went viral.

The child was employed by Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan in Islamabad. The judge and his wife, Maheen Zafar, were accused of keeping the juvenile maid in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom and threatening her with even worse abuse.

Initially, the girl told police that she had fallen down the stairs and burnt her hands by accident. But in a later statement she said she was beaten and that her hands were burned on the stove by the judge’s wife.



Authorities then placed the girl into a women’s shelter. But on Tuesday the child maid’s father told authorities he forgave the judge and his wife, and that his daughter’s story was untrue, so no charges were brought forward.

The girl’s parents were then reported to have taken her from the women’s shelter and disappeared with her.

The widely-publicised images of her injuries caught the attention of the Supreme Court, which took suo motu notice of the incident. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Nisar and Justice Maqbool Baqar, took up the case on Friday. The police failed to present the girl even though they had been asked to do so. Incensed, the bench directed the police to present the child maid at the next hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Maheen Zafar appeared before the bench where she maintained that she had received the notice on Thursday and needed time to engage a counsel and submit a reply.

The bench inquired from the DIG about the progress in investigations and why the girl had not been presented before the court. The DIG said the girl and her parents “are not traceable at the moment”.

Advocate General Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf informed the bench that a special team has been formed at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences which would examine the child maid.

Moreover, he said, the police were considering including Section 328-A (cruelty to a child) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 14 of the Employment of Child Act, 1991, in the FIR against the accused.

While expressing full confidence in the police, the bench remarked that the “investigation team must be very apt and comprise top officials.” The bench also remarked that the police high-ups should be well conversant with the case while replying to the court’s queries and details of the case should be on their fingertips.



Commenting on the medical examination, the court directed to utilise all the modern tools to find out the truth. At this point, the bench also noted that how would medical examination take place when the child was not ‘traceable’.

“We want medical examination at the earliest. Also, conduct forensic test of the photos and videos of the victim that appeared in print and electronic media and determine the truth,” Justice Nisar remarked.

The bench also ordered the assistant commissioner of Potohar, Nisha Ishtiaq, to appear before the court along with the relevant record at the next hearing.

The case has spotlighted rampant child labour in Pakistan. Current figures detailing the precise scale of child labour are not available. The last official national survey was carried out in 1996, and put the number of working children at 3.3 million.

According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 13 per cent of children aged 10 to 14 in Pakistan are engaged in child labour.

There are no surveys on domestic child labour specifically, but Islamabad-based child rights NGO Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child (Sparc) estimates that some 15.5 million children are involved in domestic work. (With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2017.