Family Courts: Looking forward to pleasant visitations

Adequate space for visitations planned.

LAHORE:

Emotions run high and anger works its way into the scene at the two family visitation rooms at civil courts where children are brought to meet their estranged parents. Often these couples get into arguments in the small rooms and loud quarrels break out, none of which bode well for children. The New Year promises adequate space and a serene atmosphere for children to meet their parents in.

Senior Guardian Judge Sahir Islam said they were planning to move the family visitation rooms to the Children’s Library near Lawrence Garden. He said the library and its grounds provided a relaxed atmosphere which could have a calming effect on couples whose marriage had disintegrated. The judge said they would also arrange for more spacious rooms in the new premises.

Hundreds of people arrive at the family visitation rooms each Saturday. Many of them travel long distances to exercise their right to visit their children. Many of them complain that their visits are cut short because the rooms get crowded too quickly.

Nadia Bibi, who had brought her son to meet his father last month, said her son refused to go hug his father. “His father became furious and started yelling at me and used abusive language for my family in front of my son,” she said. A lot of children in the room, who had come to meet their parents, started crying because of it, said Nadia Bibi.

However, there are no measures to prevent adults from using abusive language in the rooms. Loud arguments and quarrels break out often at these rooms. Muhammad Aslam, who was at the courts last month to visit his son, said he believed that his former wife had poisoned his son against him. “The courts must take appropriate measures to deal with such cases, a parent’s right of custody should be revoked if they are found guilty of provoking their children against the other parent.”

Advocate Ghulam Mujtaba Chaudhry said often parents brought along other family members to visit the children, which is why the two rooms get crowded. The courts could look into limiting the number of people who could visit children. He also suggested family counsellors, who could keep a check on the kind of language adults used in the presence of children.

Several parents who visit the courts to meet their children each week have requested the court to remove the visitation rooms away from the court premises. The presence of litigants, lawyers and policemen have a sobering impression on the children, they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.