The father of the girl Dua Zehra, whose case pertaining to her marriage after her disappearance from Karachi is being heard by the Sindh High Court (SHC)– has claimed that the judge did not let the child record her statement despite her agreeing to go home. He said that he along with his wife met their daughter for 5-7 minutes, but she was not allowed to issue another statement by the court.
Earlier today the results of the medical tests ordered to determine Dua Zehra’s age, were disclosed at the Sindh High Court. The results found the girl to be aged 16 or 17 years, as opposed to her claims of being 18, and her father’s claims of her being 14.
Following the session, the court granted the parents a 10 minute meeting with their daughter in the judges chambers. According to her father, Mehdi Kazmi, the girl embraced him and started crying.
#DuaZehra father's recent statement pic.twitter.com/38NvIF2bKJ
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“I calmed her down and asked her to please give a statement to the judge saying that you want to go home, and she said okay,” he said, adding that at that point, the lady policewomen came and told them that their time was up. He says it had only been 5-7 minutes.
Kazmi claims that the minute the police assessed that Dua had agreed to going home, they came and took her arm and dragged her away. He refers to a mustached man clad in white shalwar kameez, who can be seen in many of the court videos, and says that he was part of the entourage that took the child away.
When the unidentified man took his daughter’s hand, Kazmi asked him who he was and in what relation was he daring to hold his daughter’s hand, to which the man replied that he was Dua’s father. “I told him that I am the father of the child, not you,” says Kazmi, adding that they took his daughter away back to the shelter home.
“I kept saying the girl wants to give a statement to the court, don’t take her away,” he says, maintaining that he was told that there would be no statement as they were taking the girl away. When Kazmi and his lawyer approached the judge, they were told that since the girl had already given a statement once under oath in court, she could not give another statement.
Kazmi asserts that his daughter was under pressure from outside sources to give the statement that she gave, and challenged the medical reports saying that his own marriage took place some 16 years ago, so how could his daughter be 17 or 18.
