The judge ordered the police to produce the girl in court after the counsel for the accused stated that the son of the complainant in the theft case was a Christian and had married a Muslim girl. DESIGN: TARIQ GILANI
A judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday directed Sargodha police to produce a girl who had married a Christian man after converting from Islam to Christianity.
Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar issued the order on a petition seeking pre-arrest bail for five relatives of the girl in a case of theft at her husband’s house.
The judge ordered the police to produce the girl in court after the counsel for the accused stated that the son of the complainant in the theft case was a Christian and had married a Muslim girl. At this, the judge asked the complainant, “Does he know the consequences of that?” Justice Akbar then asked the complainant and his counsel regarding the couple’s whereabouts. They said they were sure that the two were living together after their marriage but did not know where they were. The judge asked them if the boy had converted to Islam or the girl to Christianity. The complainant and his counsel said that they knew nothing. The judge asked how the two could live together in such a situation. He directed the investigation officer to ensure the girl’s presence in court on May 5. The judge adjourned the bail petitions until that date.
Relatives of the girl had lodged an abduction case against the Christian boy she had left home with him, and his relatives. An LHC judge had quashed the case when the girl appeared in court and submitted that no one had kidnapped her, that she was an adult and had married of her free will. The family of the groom had lodged a case against five of the bride’s relatives for attacking and looting their house after they had fled the village. The five accused had applied for pre-arrest bail before a district and sessions judge who dismissed their plea. The accused then challenged the dismissal in the LHC.
In an interview with The Express Tribune in July 2013, the girl had said that she had married her husband in September 2012 of her free will. The two had a month-old baby boy at the time. The girl had said that her father had died when she was 19. Her only sibling, a sister, was married.
“Before we eloped,” she had said, “none of my relatives were interested in my marriage. Now they suddenly see it as a matter of honour.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2014.
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