January 30, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 20, 1429

RAWALPINDI, Jan 29: Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Tuesday directed a woman who had adopted a child in Kahuta to bring the baby in the court on the next date after a man moved the court for the custody of the child.

The man lost his son in Holy Family Hospital (HFH) last December.

Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah of the LHC asked Nusrat Bibi of Kahota to bring the child, she claimed to have adopted, in the court on February 6. On Tuesday when the court took up the case the woman turned up in the court with out the child and said she wanted to file her written comments but the judge observed that she was not the real mother and only an adopter and she must bring the child in the court.

An interesting situation emerged in the court when police investigation officer said that they had recovered a child from the custody of a woman who had confessed that he child was stolen from the children ward of HFH on December 9 the day when the newborn baby of Tariq Mehmood, the petitioner, was lost. He said the DNA test of the recovered baby would be carried out to ascertain his parenthood.

The lawyer of the petitioner maintained that the DNA test of the child adopted by the Kahuta woman was not on the record and they wanted a new DNA test of the child from a hospital other than HFH.

The petition was moved against the January 9 decision of District and Sessions Judge Rawalpindi Mian Khadim Hussain who gave the custody of the baby to the issueless Nusrat Bibi, the adopter, after it was determined through DNA test that the child did not belong to Najma wife of petitioner Tariq Mehmood.

According to the details Ghulam Sughran, a lady councillor and a close relative of Nusrat Bibi, in her statement to the DSJ said that she found a baby abandoned in a graveyard in Kahuta town and gave it to issueless Nusrat after informing the local police and obtaining a certificate to adopt from local union council office.

Making DSJ, Punjab government through its health secretary, medical Superintendent HFH, Dr Nasir Shah Inquiry Officer at HFH, In-charge Children Nursery HFH, two staff nurses, Ghulam Sughran and Nusrat Bibi, SHO New Town and the police investigation officer as respondents, the petitioner maintained that the judge announced his decision without calling and hearing his statement in the custody case.

He said when the boy was found in Kahota he was told that his lost son had been recovered but when the case was taken to DSJ the doctors three days before DNA test told him that it was not his baby just to conceal the crime of the or negligence of the hospital administration. He also challenged the outcome of DNA report.

He prayed in the court that the baby should be handed over to him and legal action should be taken against those involved in theft of the baby and production of false DNA report.