The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday gave last chance to the Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) to produce Nimra Kazmi, a girl who went missing from the Malir area last month and later found to have married a man in Punjab, on May 30.
The girl’s family claims that she is under 18 and cannot marry due to the law prohibiting child marriage. Expressing dissatisfaction at the police report with regard to the recovery of Nimra, a division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro observed that the police had failed to produce her despite court directives.
The SHC was hearing a petition filed by the girl’s family for her recovery and the cancellation of her marriage under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act. The high court observed that the investigation officer (IO) had earlier informed it that he was waiting for the permission from the Punjab home department to conduct a raid on the place where the girl was present.
The bench observed that on a previous hearing, the IO had informed it that the girl was to appear before a civil judge in Taunsa Sharif for recording of her statement under the Section 164 of the CrPC. The IO had assured the court that he would produce the girl after her statement was recorded.
The SHC observed that now the IO submitted that one of the accused nominated in the case had been arrested and during the interrogation, the police could get any clue regarding the missing girl.
In the progress report, the IO stated that the abducted girl did not appear before the magistrate to record her statement. He said the police were making all possible efforts for the recovery of Nimra in collaboration with the local police of Taunsa Sharif. He sought further time to produce the girl.
The high court expressed dissatisfaction at the police report and observed that the police had produced neither Nimra nor Dua Zehra, another allegedly minor girl who went missing from Karachi last month and later found to have married a man in Punjab.
The SHC observed that the matter of Nimra would be taken up again on Monday when the case of Dua had also been fixed. The high court gave the last chance to the IGP to produce the girls before the court.
The bench also directed the federal interior secretary to help the Sindh police recover the allegedly abducted girls, and adjourned the hearing till May 30. The petitioner, Nargis, had said her daughter Nimra went missing after leaving the house on April 20 and a case was registered on kidnapping charges. She submitted that the police failed to file a charge sheet with regard to the kidnapping of her daughter despite knowing that her minor daughter was in the custody of a man, Najeeb Shahrukh, a resident of Tunsa Sharif.