Karachi police reach Lahore to bring Dua Zehra back

The Karachi police team investigating the case of Dua Zehra has reached Lahore to bring her back so her age can be ascertained, the investigating officer told The News on Thursday.

“We’re here [in Lahore], but the entire day has passed in seeking the Punjab Home Department’s permission to take the girl back to Karachi,” said DSP Shaukat Shahani. “The process has been completed, and she’ll be brought back after getting the permission.”

After the plea of Dua’s father Mehdi Ali Kazmi, the Sindh Health Department formed a special medical board to ascertain the age of the teenage girl who had gone missing from her Karachi home in April and was later found to have married a man in Lahore.

Last week a District East judicial magistrate had given the health secretary seven days to decide Kazmi’s application calling for a medical board to be constituted to determine his daughter’s age because he insisted that she was a minor.

Prof Saba Sohail, principal of the Dow Medical College, Karachi, has been appointed as the head of the panel that also comprises Dr Sikandar Rafique Qureshi, head of the Radiology Department at the Lyari General Hospital, Dr Rani, consultant radiologist, and seven other medial experts as its members.

On Saturday Judicial Magistrate-XXIV Aftab Ahmed Bughio had ordered further investigation into Dua’s case to determine her age in order to find if she was mature enough to exercise free will and elope.

He said the age of the girl needs to be determined to ascertain whether she was enticed into leaving the house of her parents or she eloped on her own, and in the latter case, if she was old enough to take that decision.