{"id":35454,"date":"2020-06-10T10:52:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T10:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=35454"},"modified":"2020-06-10T10:52:15","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T10:52:15","slug":"family-of-abducted-girl-14-take-case-to-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/06\/10\/family-of-abducted-girl-14-take-case-to-high-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of abducted girl, 14, take case to High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Christian family in Pakistan have gone to the High Court in their fight to win back their 14-year-old girl, who they say was abducted by a man who forced her to marry him and demanded she abandon her faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu confirmed to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that on Tuesday, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> June he submitted a petition to Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan to appeal the case of Maira Shahbaz.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The family want to overturn the ruling of Faisalabad Magistrates\u2019 Court which on 5<sup>th<\/sup> May declared that Catholic girl Maira is 19 and, as such, is validly wedded to Muslim man Mohamad Nakash, who is already married and with two young children.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Witnesses described how on 28<sup>th<\/sup> April Maira was walking close to her home in Madina Town, near Faisalabad, when Mr Nakash and two armed accomplices drew up in a car, abducted her and fired guns into the air as they made off at speed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu told ACN: \u201cI am trying my very best for the case. Maira\u2019s mother [Nighat Shahbaz] is so very sad \u2013 in fact she is a picture of sadness. You cannot imagine the shock of losing your daughter and losing all contact with her.\u201d He said that when Nighat Shahbaz saw her daughter at last month\u2019s magistrates\u2019 court hearing, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital with a heart attack. She is making a slow recovery.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu added: \u201cThe case for Maira being a minor is very strong. There are so many gaps and weaknesses in the opponent\u2019s argument.\u201d He cites a birth certificate and other official documentation from her local church and school to prove that Maira is 14.\u00a0 Mr Sandhu claims a marriage certificate Mr Nakash produced in court is a fake. The document purports to show he wed the girl last October.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Nakash argues that, in spite of law, which forbids marriage to minors, marrying Maira is sanctioned by Islamic custom which, he claims, says it is valid, provided the girl has had her first period.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu said: \u201cIn cases like this what we so often see is that, after two or three years, the people send back the girl to the family by which time they have satisfied their lust and have had enough of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr Sandhu, former Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs, pledged to raise Maira\u2019s case in the Punjab Assembly. A one-time university room-mate of fellow Christian Shahbaz Bhatti, assassinated in 2011 while serving as Pakistan\u2019s federal minister for minorities, Mr Sandhu said: \u201cWhat motivates me is my faith in Jesus and I am reminded of the Gospel passage where Christ reveals how he has been sent to set the captives free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As a charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, ACN supports the National Commisson for Justice and Peace and other organisations in Pakistan which provide legal and paralegal aid for minorities and help for those forced into hiding.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/donate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35305 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-300x44.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-300x44.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-580x85.jpg 580w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button-600x88.jpg 600w, https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Support-button.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian family in Pakistan have gone to the High Court in their fight to win back their 14-year-old girl, who they say was abducted by a man who forced her to marry him and demanded she abandon her faith. Lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu confirmed to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Family of abducted girl, 14, take case to High Court - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2020\/06\/10\/family-of-abducted-girl-14-take-case-to-high-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family of abducted girl, 14, take case to High Court - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Christian family in Pakistan have gone to the High Court in their fight to win back their 14-year-old girl, who they say was abducted by a man who forced her to marry him and demanded she abandon her faith. 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