Arzoo allowed to live with parents till 18 years of age, declares SHC

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted the request of Arzoo Fatima — the underage girl who had converted from Christianity to Islam and married a Muslim man — to live with her parents until she reaches the age of 18 years.

The direction came on an application filed by the minor, who has been residing at a shelter home for the past one year after the court declared her marriage unlawful under the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act.

On November 23 last year the court had sent her to the shelter home after she refused to go with her parents. The court, however, gave her the opportunity to ponder over her life choices.

After living at the shelter home for a year, she filed her application requesting to leave the shelter home and move back in with her Christian parents of her own free will. The counsel for Arzoo’s husband argued that since the applicant had converted to Islam, she could not be returned to her parents because they were non-Muslims.

An SHC division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Arshad Hussain Khan asked the petitioner if she had converted to Islam of her own free will. She replied in the affirmative, and said she wanted to go with her parents.

Her parents assured the court that they would not pressurise her into changing her religion again, and would allow her to practise her religion freely and adopt her own life choices in this respect.

They also assured the court that they would not cause any physical or mental harm to their daughter for converting to Islam or for initially deciding to reside at the shelter home, saying that they would take good care of her.

After recording the undertaking of the parents, the court ordered that Arzoo be returned from the shelter home to her parents’ home, where she would now reside and be looked after by them.

The court ordered that until Arzoo reaches the age of 18 years, every three months her parents would bring her before the relevant SHO, who would certify if she was being treated well by them in terms of the court’s orders.

The bench said if the SHO’s certificate was negative, the matter would be put up before the court. The bench ordered Arzoo not to meet her alleged husband Ali Azhar, who was apparently facing a criminal trial under the child marriages restraint act and for the offence of rape.

The SHC had ordered that Arzoo’s case was to be investigated in accordance with the child marriages restraint act after a medical board declared her a minor. When the court had asked her if she had converted to Islam and married of her own free will, she had replied in the affirmative.