Human trafficking: Court seeks explanation on woman’s complaint

Grandf­ather forcin­g me into divorc­e, wants to sell my daught­ers, says Mai Murkhi.

SUKKUR:

A court in Sukkur has intervened in the case of a woman who is allegedly being forced into a divorce and forgoing custody of her children so that her grandfather could sell them.

A Sukkur district and sessions court issued notices to the SHO Salehpat on Tuesday to file his comments about the case at the hearing on May 13.

Mai Murkhi, 21, who is the wife of Ghulam Raza Mirbahar, travelled to Sukkur with her husband and three children to file the petition. In her statement before fifth Additional Sessions Judge Syed Shakeel Haider, she said that her maternal grandfather, Miskeen Marbahar, arranged her marriage to Ghulam four years ago, with whom she is happily married and has three children. Around 10 years ago, Miskeen Marbahar had forced her happily married mother to get a divorce from her husband, after which she was married to a police constable for Rs50,000.

Now, her grandfather and stepfather were forcing her to get a divorce, so they could sell her off to someone else in marriage. She added that the two men also wanted to sell her three daughters also, and had threatened her when she refused. She sought protection from the court as her grandfather or stepfather might harm her or her husband. She informed the court that on May 5, she went to the Salehpat police station along with her husband but the police refused to register her complaint. On May 7, they went to the DPO Sukkur, who marked their application and asked them to go back to the police station. Initially, the police refused again, but they took the application later, and asked them to return home. However, no action has been taken against her grandfather or stepfather. The court admitted the petition, and issued notices to the Salephat SHO.

An anxious Mai Murki, while talking to The Express Tribune at the court premises, said that her grandfather was in the business of selling women and he could do anything for money.

She said that her mother has been happily living with her now ex-husband but her grandfather forced her into a divorce and then sold her off. She added that she simply wanted to live with her family, and that’s why she needed protection from the two men.Her husband, Ghulam Raza Mirbahar, is a peasant and he works for a landlord. He was also afraid that his father-in-law and others would kidnap his daughters.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.