Taken: Woman petitions Islamabad High Court for recovery of child

IHC seeks reply from petitioner’s husband, interior and foreign affairs ministry.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to top officials of the ministries of interior and foreign affairs after a woman moved the court seeking recovery and custody of her child.

The petitioner, Shumaila Ahsan, a resident of sector G-7, petitioned the IHC alleging that her husband, Ahsan Khan, took illegal custody of her one-year-old son, Kabir Khan, and has moved to Afghanistan.

Justice Riaz Ahmed khan issued notices to the Secretary Ministry of Interior, Secretary Ministry of foreign Affairs, Station House Officer (SHO) Koral Police Station and the petitioner’s husband and sought their reply after vacations.

The petitioner contended that she married Ahsan, an Afghan national living in Pakistan, in September 2009. Soon after, her husband became an alcoholic. He would not support her financially and frequently beat her, Shumaila told the court.

“He stopped give me money to take care of my son and he did not come to home for a long time,” she stated.

But then in July, she said, her husband came and took her son, only to call her after some time saying that he is in Kabul and threatened of dire consequences if she tried to approach him and demanded custody of the child.

She requested the court to recover her child from her husband in Afghanistan.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2011.