Children for sale: Man accuses wife of escaping marriage

Child Protection Bureau seizes custody of 3 children put up for auction.

SIALKOT:

A man accused his wife of putting his children up for sale because of a domestic dispute.

Chak-43 GB resident Muhammad Bilal recently told Child Protection Bureau (CPB) officials that his wife, Shamim Bibi, had put up his three children for sale on the side of a road because of their domestic issues and not because of poverty. “She told everyone that it was because we couldn’t feed them to get sympathy but that is not true,” he said.

Bilal, a former addict, is currently seeking treatment at the Allama Iqbal Memorial DHQ hospital in Sialkot. He said that his wife Shamim Bibi put up his children on sale without his consent. Bilal told special assistant to the Punjab chief minister, Manshaullah Butt, that he had left his money with his wife while he sought treatment for his addiction. “She wanted to keep the money for herself and leave me. The children would have been a burden so she tried to get rid of them,” he said. Medical superintendent Dr Zafar Awan said that Bilal was being provided free care and that he had immediately contacted the police when he discovered what his wife had done.

Meanwhile, CPB officials have taken the children into legal custody. Amina, 2, Waqar, 6, and Waqas, 8, were put up for sale in front of the Sialkot court on Sunday. She told people that she was unable to feed the children and that she was putting them up for sale to avoid committing suicide. “I have considered poisoning them and myself but this way they will survive,” she told reporters.

Bilal said that he had already given his wife enough money to manage the care of his children.

“She wanted to use the money to leave town and leave me. She knew that taking the children would mean she would be tied down,” he told the CPB officials.

Shamim Bibi said that her husband Muhammad Bilal was an addict and that he was abusive. On Monday, after Bilal made a statement about the sale of his children, local police searched for Shamim Bibi but found that she had left her house. “She told us that the hospital had nothing to offer them and all her money was spent purchasing medicines for her husband. She said that her children were starving in the meantime and she had nothing to offer them,” Inspector Haroon Buksh said.

CPB officials said that they had taken the three children into custody. “We have taken them into custody and will place them in public school. An investigation has been initiated into the statements of both parents but either way neither parent is fit to care for the children at this stage. We will reevaluate their case when Bilal’s treatment is completed,” said CPB official Bandial.PPI



Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2011.