Court allows The Minor to decide where she wants to live

The Sindh High Court has announced its verdict in The Minor case. “The Minor is entitled to make her own decision, and live with whoever she wishes,” says the verdict.

Talking to The Current, lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir said,”The judgement in The Minor case is extremely problematic. To start off with, the Honourable Divisional Bench has completely disregarded established jurisprudence of the Sindh High Court in such matters. Wherever it is proven that the girl is under 18, her marriage is deemed Child marriage, she is only given two options, i.e. whether to reside with parents or go to shelter home and if the child is sent to a shelter home, she is under no circumstances allowed to meet her alleged husband and alleged in-laws who orchestrated the crime of child marriage.”

“This judgement also negates our jurisprudence under Criminal Law and Family Law with regards to rights of minors and parents,” he added.

“The court also failed to realise that the Sindh High Court has already held that where NADRA documents are present, they are to be preferred over any medical report as ossification report gives an estimate ranging from 1 to 2 years as opposed to specific date. The court also failed to realise that to determine age, a medical board of senior doctors is formed, which was not done in this case.”

“As a whole, what our courts are consistently failing to realise that a minor girl under 16 years of age can be enticed away from guardianship of her parents and that is kidnapping under section 361 PPC. The Advocate General Sindh also failed to realise this when he told the court that this is not a case of abduction.”

Jibran Nasir said that another aspect the courts are failing to appreciate are the recent penal laws introduced in 2016 for protection of children where seducing a child is a crime under 292A PPC. “If seducing a child is a crime, then how can the resulting marriage be justified.”

“It is also ignorant of the amendment made to Hudood Laws by the Women’s Protection Act 2006. Under Hudood Laws, there existed a concept of a 13-year-old girl getting married and resulting marital relation not being considered as rape. However, after 2006 Women’s Protection Act, no such exception exist and any sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 is strict liability rape.”

“This judgement will not do our children any good, if anything it has made the jurisprudence more confusing and our children more vulnerable to predators.”

A medical examination report ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC) to determine The Minor’s age has revealed that her real age is between 16 to 17 years. However, The Minor’s father Mehdi Ali Kazmi has termed the report fake and has decided to challenge it.

Mehdi Ali Kazmi wrote a letter to Sindh’s Health Secretary in which he indicated that he married in 2005 and The Minor was born three years later, and that it is incorrect for The Minor to be between the age of 16 and 17.

As per media reports, The Minor told her mother that she wants to come home during a meeting arranged at the orders of the Sindh High Court (SHC).

The Minor along with her husband Zaheer Ahmed was produced in the Sindh High Court on Monday, June 6.

The Minor went missing on April 16. The same month she was found in Lahore. Three videos of The Minor also surfaced in which the girl can be heard saying that she married out of her own free will, and claimed that she is 18 years of age. However, her father claims that she is not 18.