IHC sends uncle, aunts to jail in child custody case

Girl put on ECL taken to Dubai by father

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed on Friday to send three members of a family to jail for not producing a three-year old girl it had put on ECL and shifting her abroad in violation of court orders.

Previously the court had directed to place the child on exit control list (ECL) and gave repeated directives to the father of the girl to produce her before the bench.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of IHC heard the case filed by girl’s mother Sadia Malik seeking possession of her daughter from her former husband Muhammad Asif.

During hearing, Barrister Masood informed the bench that the father of the minor came to Pakistan and took her daughter to Dubai. However, Justice Siddiqui directed to send girls parental uncle and two aunts to jail for not complying court orders and asked the police to lodge a case against them under relevant sections.

The court also directed to serve them a show cause notice regarding contempt of court proceeding. The bench questioned the police how the girl was shifted abroad despite the fact that her name was on the ECL? “The court is not as weak as it could not recover a minor,” he said.

Justice Siddiqui directed the Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) to take measures to bring back the child from Dubai.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2017.