KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the provincial and police authorities on a petition seeking recovery of Dua Zehra, who had gone missing from her Karachi home and later surfaced in Punjab.

       The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro directed the respondents as well as the prosecutor general Sindh to file comments till May 19.

       Syed Mehdi Ali Kazmi approached the SHC and submitted that as per educational, birth certificates and other record of her daughter, she was 13-year-old and under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 it was illegal to marry a minor/underage.

       The petitioner further said that he came to know through social media that her daughter had allegedly contracted marriage with Zaheer Ahmed, a resident of Lahore, and the girl was seemed to be afraid and under pressure in a press conference.

       He pleaded to declare the alleged marriage illegal since his daughter was underage and sought directives for respondents to locate the whereabouts of the girl, recover her and hand the custody to her parents, and the prosecution of the alleged accused as well as the nikkah khwan and witnesses under the relevant laws.

       Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022