Parent trap: Mother’s plea for temporary custody refused over boy’s statement
Mother says she spent weeks looking for them after they were kidnapped.
FAISALABAD:
Two minor boys studying at a local madrassa refused to return home with their mother on Monday morning.
Eyewitnesses told court officials that they saw two young boys fighting with their mother outside the madrassa gates. “The boys refused to go home with her and said that they were happy at madrassa and wanted to live with their father,” said witness Aslam Pasha.
On the basis of statement from the minors, Additional Session Judge Abdul Rehman Bodla dismissed a petition filed by Nai Mainadpur Mashraqi resident Shazia Nawaz for the recovery of her sons from the Madrassa Al Madina Chak No213, Faisalabad under Section 491 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In her petition Shazia contended that she was married to Kharian resident Abul Aziz in 1988. “I didn’t know that he already had three daughters and two sons out of wedlock.
When I found out, he turned me out of the house and refused to pay me any allowance,” she added. Shazia said that her husband had treated her cruelly and she had recently moved the court seeking a divorce. The court accepted her plea and a decree for dissolution of marriage as well as recovery of maintenance allowance was passed in her favour.
She claimed that despite the court’s order Aziz had not paid her a maintenance fee. “He was sent to jail and my sons were admitted to the madrassa by his family,” she said.
“It took me weeks to find the madrassa and when I finally did, the management told me that Aziz had told them my son’s mother was dead. My boys told me they wanted to leave but pretended for the sake of the madrassa administrator,” she said. Shazia said that the madrassa administrator refused to allow her to see her sons initially and said that their father had written a notice saying that their mother was dead and that he couldn’t afford to raise them.
“My son’s began weeping and whispered in my ear and told my brother that the Qari used to beat them and they wanted to leave but that they were told by the madrassa administration to turn me away,” she said.
The court, on Shazia’s complaint, ordered the Peoples Colony Station House Officer to recover minor’s Muhammad Ashraf, 12, and Tassaduq Hussain, 11, from the madrassa. The boys were recovered from the madrassa and produced before the court by Assistant Superintendent (ASI) Muhammad Saleem Akhtar. “The boys were given over an hour to sit and speak with their mother in the court but they refused to sit with her and refused to leave with her. They both said they wanted to return to the madrassa and live with their father,” Akhtar said.
“They stated that nobody had detained them and they were never tortured by their teacher,” the prosecution noted. Akhtar Attari, a teacher at the madrassa said that he had no objection if the boys chose to leave with their mother.
Judge Abdul Rehman Bodla said, “The inquiry has revealed that the boys were taken to the madrassa illegally, they were kidnapped from their mother’s house but now they are both staying there of their own will. The minors are sufficiently mature to decide their future.”
Shazia said that she had spent months searching for her sons and the court had not given her custody. “I have approached different courts in Sialkot, Gujraat and Faisalabad to get guardianship of my children but no one is willing to help me,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2011.
Two minor boys studying at a local madrassa refused to return home with their mother on Monday morning.
Eyewitnesses told court officials that they saw two young boys fighting with their mother outside the madrassa gates. “The boys refused to go home with her and said that they were happy at madrassa and wanted to live with their father,” said witness Aslam Pasha.
On the basis of statement from the minors, Additional Session Judge Abdul Rehman Bodla dismissed a petition filed by Nai Mainadpur Mashraqi resident Shazia Nawaz for the recovery of her sons from the Madrassa Al Madina Chak No213, Faisalabad under Section 491 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In her petition Shazia contended that she was married to Kharian resident Abul Aziz in 1988. “I didn’t know that he already had three daughters and two sons out of wedlock.
When I found out, he turned me out of the house and refused to pay me any allowance,” she added. Shazia said that her husband had treated her cruelly and she had recently moved the court seeking a divorce. The court accepted her plea and a decree for dissolution of marriage as well as recovery of maintenance allowance was passed in her favour.
She claimed that despite the court’s order Aziz had not paid her a maintenance fee. “He was sent to jail and my sons were admitted to the madrassa by his family,” she said.
“It took me weeks to find the madrassa and when I finally did, the management told me that Aziz had told them my son’s mother was dead. My boys told me they wanted to leave but pretended for the sake of the madrassa administrator,” she said. Shazia said that the madrassa administrator refused to allow her to see her sons initially and said that their father had written a notice saying that their mother was dead and that he couldn’t afford to raise them.
“My son’s began weeping and whispered in my ear and told my brother that the Qari used to beat them and they wanted to leave but that they were told by the madrassa administration to turn me away,” she said.
The court, on Shazia’s complaint, ordered the Peoples Colony Station House Officer to recover minor’s Muhammad Ashraf, 12, and Tassaduq Hussain, 11, from the madrassa. The boys were recovered from the madrassa and produced before the court by Assistant Superintendent (ASI) Muhammad Saleem Akhtar. “The boys were given over an hour to sit and speak with their mother in the court but they refused to sit with her and refused to leave with her. They both said they wanted to return to the madrassa and live with their father,” Akhtar said.
“They stated that nobody had detained them and they were never tortured by their teacher,” the prosecution noted. Akhtar Attari, a teacher at the madrassa said that he had no objection if the boys chose to leave with their mother.
Judge Abdul Rehman Bodla said, “The inquiry has revealed that the boys were taken to the madrassa illegally, they were kidnapped from their mother’s house but now they are both staying there of their own will. The minors are sufficiently mature to decide their future.”
Shazia said that she had spent months searching for her sons and the court had not given her custody. “I have approached different courts in Sialkot, Gujraat and Faisalabad to get guardianship of my children but no one is willing to help me,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2011.