ISLAMABAD, May 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent Neelum Ludhani, a 21-year-old girl who recently embraced Islam, to ‘safe custody’ along with her Muslim husband but allowed their parents to meet them regularly. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad decided to take up the matter again on Thursday and ordered that the couple be kept at the National Police Academy under safe custody instead of the Women’s Crisis Centre, Islamabad.
Advocate Sardar Latif Khosa, representing the girl’s in-laws, had objected to sending her to crisis centre arguing it would mean illegal confinement of the girl as she was a married woman.
Misri Ludhani, the father of the girl, had requested the apex court through a complaint to recover his ‘abducted’ daughter. Already a case had been filed by him in this regard.
Despite persuasions from her father, a serving additional income tax commissioner, Neelum insisted before the court that she wanted to live with her husband, Amjad Shahzad, with whom she married one and a half months ago but was being shunted from one place to the other.
A police investigating officer told the court that he found no evidence to prove the allegations regarding abduction of the girl and that her statement had clearly stated that she married Amjad on April 13, 2006 in Karachi. The FIR was lodged on April 21.
She embraced Islam on April 13 in the presence of Mufti Mohammad Jan Naeemi in Darul Uloom Mujaddadia, Malir Colony, Karachi.
The father of Engineer Amjad Shahzad, who lives in Nawabshah (Sindh), is a government contractor and owner of a construction firm. He also offered to transfer an under construction CNG station worth Rs20 million in the name of Neelum when the court inquired whether he was ready to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs5 million in favour of the girl for her secure future in addition to monthly maintenance and an assurance that the girl would not be divorced.
Misri Ludhani alleged that his daughter had been missing from his house since April 12 and highlighted certain anomalies in the certificate of converting faith and her free will affidavit. He alleged that she was lured into marriage because she was mentally retarded and had no idea what she would face in future.
He requested that she should be provided complete solitude so that she could reconsider her decision.
He said he had no objection over her only daughter’s decision to embrace Islam but was concerned with her future as Amjad was already married and had a son. Neelum is his second wife, who married without the consent of his first wife, Shakila Ambreen.
Advocate Khosa, however, questioned that after converting faith, Misri Ludhani had seized to be a lawful guardian of Neelum, besides entering into Islam was a noble act and should always be encouraged.
“Courts should not make embracing Islam so difficult and discourage people to choose Islam as their faith,” he said, adding Neelum was their daughter-in-law and it was their responsibility to provide her security comfort and respect.
At one time, the chief justice also admonished the girl not misbehave with her father, adding that the love she was getting from her father would not be possible again in future.
ISLAMABAD, May 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent Neelum Ludhani, a 21-year-old girl who recently embraced Islam, to ‘safe custody’ along with her Muslim husband but allowed their parents to meet them regularly. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad decided to take up the matter again on Thursday and ordered that the couple be kept at the National Police Academy under safe custody instead of the Women’s Crisis Centre, Islamabad.
