Mother charged with selling baby bailed out

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday granted bail to mother of a newborn charged with selling her baby to a gang allegedly involved in the abduction and sale of babies from hospitals and maternity homes and hospitals in the provincial capital.

A single bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel granted bail to mother of the newborn. She was asked to file an application for getting custody of the child from the police. However, the court denied bail to father of the baby, who was also charged with selling his baby.

The chief justice observed that the bail concession is being granted only to the mother of the baby as she had five other minor daughters and her husband, who is an addict, is also in prison.

During hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer, Aminur Rehman Yousafzai submitted before the bench that Farhat Imtiaz, mother of the baby, had wrongly been charged in the first information report as she had willingly handed over her baby girl to the so-called Dr Wajiha for her better future as she was poor and resourceless.

He said Shamin, niece of the petitioner, had compelled her to hand over her minor baby to Dr Wajiha as she did not know they were involved in selling and kidnapping of babies. The lawyer submitted that the accused petitioners were innocent as they had handed over the baby for wellbeing of the child. He submitted that the police also invoked wrong section of the law against the petitioners. He explained that human smuggling and trafficking charges cannot be invoked against parents as these are invoked when a child is being trafficked from one country to another. The chief justice observed that it was the Child Rights Commission to protect or work for development of the child in such a situation, but the government was only interested in making such laws. He said no commission or set-up is being made for the protection of the children.

The SHO of East Cant Police Station, Malik Habib, and Zafar Khan, Circle Inspector, also appeared in the court. They informed the court that the baby child was in custody of female constable would be handed over to the parents after the court order.

The court, however, denied bail to an eight-member gang few days ago allegedly involved in the abduction and sale of newborns from hospitals and maternity homes. The accused included Lady Health Workers Wajiha, Musarrat, Noreen and others are Nadia, Anjuman, Anwar Pari, Nadir and Ibn Ameen.