KARACHI: The Sindh government handed over on Friday 26 minor girls, recovered from a house in Liaquatabad on Wednesday, to Assis­tant Political Agent of Bajaur Fayyaz Sherpao, former MNAs from Fata, Akhunzada Chatan and Noor Alam, and former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi.

They came to Karachi after a discussion on phone between Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Gover­nor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. They will take the girls to Peshawar to reunite them with their parents.

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Most of the girls, aged between five and 11 years, are from Bajaur tribal agency and they can speak only Pushto. They were discovered when neighbours informed lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement about their presence in a two-room house.

Police raided the house and recovered the girls. A woman in the house said that the girls were students of a local madressah and its management had handed them over to her to settle a monetary dispute.

Sindh Social Welfare Minister Robina Qaimkhani, who handed over the girls to the delegation from Fata, said at a press conference that the girls had been taken into custody and kept at a shelter in Shantinagar.

She said that seven other girls, found in a house in Fatimah Jinnah Colony in Jamshed Quarters, were from Karachi and had been handed over to their parents.

She said that PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari had been kept informed about the matter and on his directives, Akhunzada Chatan, Noor Alam and Faisal Karim arrived in Karachi and signed an agreement to complete legal formalities relating to the handing over of the girls.

To prevent recurrence of such incidents, she said, the IG of Sindh had been directed to initiate action against unregistered madressahs. Representa­tives of Wafaq-ul-Madaris have been asked to ensure registration of all seminaries.

Assistant Political Agent Sherpao said that they had requested the federal government to provide a C-130 aircraft to take the girls to Pesha­war. Otherwise, they will be flown in the first available commercial flight.

Published in Dawn, November 29th , 2014