Girl allowed to leave shelter home

The Lahore High Court has allowed a girl to live with her husband who had challenged a session judge's order to send her to a shelter home.

“Maria Shahbaz is set at liberty and she may accompany her husband/petitioner or live independently as per her desire,” the LHC order stated.

Nakash Tariq, who had married Maria, had challenged in the LHC the order of a sessions judge of Faisalabad who sent her to Darul Aman. After hearing detailed arguments, the LHC set aside the order. However the order was misreported by a foreign website.

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Recording her statement before a magistrate under section 164, the girl said no one had abducted her, and she had embraced Islam and married Tariq.

She was given some time to meet her mother, who was the plaintiff in the case, after which she once again stated that she had married the petitioner on her own accord. She also filed harassment petitions before the sessions judge against some police officials, accusing them of disturbing her married life in light of an FIR lodged by her parents against her husband. The judge reportedly restrained police officials from harassing her.

The LHC order mentioned that the girl in her petitions had acknowledged that the petitioner was her husband.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2020.