September 07, 2006	Thursday	Sha'aban 13, 1427

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LAHORE, Sept 6: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday restrained federal and Punjab governments from arresting British national Misbah Iram Rana (Molly Campbell) and handing her over to a third party.

Hearing a writ petition moved by Tehmina Ahmad Rana, the elder sister of Misbah, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar issued notices to the two governments to explain if the fears of the petitioner that the Interior Ministry, Punjab home department and the inspector-general of the provincial police were contemplating to repatriate the girl to Glasgow to join her mother were genuine.

The court also issued a notice to the in-charge of the UK Citizenship Affairs in Islamabad to submit a reply if the UK government had sent instructions to the British consular to have the custody of the child and send her to Britain.

The court adjourned the case till Friday.

In another case, a local civil court extended Misbah’s interim custody to her father till Sept 30 and directed her mother to appear and file a rejoinder on that date. The civil court had been approached by the girl’s father.

Tehmina’s counsel told the LHC that the repatriation of the girl would be unconstitutional. He said Article 227 of the Constitution provided that no laws repugnant to Quran and Sunnah would be enacted. If the government, he maintained, sent the teenaged girl to a country, where her mother had renounced Islam and turned an ‘apostate’, this would be and an un-Islamic act which also came in conflict with the constitution. He submitted that by turning an apostate, Louise Anne Fairley had forfeited the Islamic right of the child’s custody.

The counsel observed that the protocol reached between

the Supreme Court of Pak-

istan with the UK court for repatriation of abducted children stood no legal ground because such agreements had not been signed by judges but governments.

He said the girl had come to Pakistan on her own and was living happily with her father, and did not want to go back.

The counsel submitted that the Punjab police wanted to take the girl into custody on the pretext of an extradition treaty with the UK. He said the house of Sajjad Ahmad Rana was under round-the-clock police surveillance.

Talking to journalists after the hearing, Misbah said: “I don’t want to leave Pakistan but want to live with my father who has not forced me to live here; he has rather allowed me to take decisions according my own desire”.

She also talked to her mother on telephone during the chat with the media. She was in tears and sobbed while saying that her mother did not like what she had done (coming to Pakistan without her permission).