ISLAMABAD: A four-member medical board examined the child maid at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Monday. Though the doctors found signs of torture on the body of the girl and collected samples, she kept on changing her statements.

Tayyaba, 10, was allegedly tortured in the house of a serving district and sessions judge in the federal capital.

“It appears that a relation of ‘master and slave’ had been established between the child and the family of the judge as she tried her best to protect her ‘masters’. She changed her statements at least three times. Moreover, she seemed completely unaware of her rights and believed whatever happened with her was not unusual,” Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram told Dawn.

The police in its initial report stated that the girl had fallen from stairs and was accidentally burnt. However, the chief justice of Islamabad High Court and then the chief justice Pakistan took notice of the matter. On January 6, the child was scheduled to be produced before the medical board at Pims but she disappeared. On January 8, she was recovered from the suburb of Islamabad.

On Monday morning, DSP Bashir Noon brought the child to Pims. When the media reached the hospital, the child had been examined by the board and sent back to the crisis centre.

The medical board, comprising burn surgeon Dr Tariq Iqbal, plastic surgeon Dr Hameeduddin, general surgeon Dr S. H. Waqar and psychologist Dr Rizwan Taj, examined the child for an hour, said Dr Akram.

The head of the medical board, Dr Tariq Iqbal, told the media that the report would be submitted to the Supreme Court.

During the media briefing, Dr Akram said not only the child was examined but also samples were taken from her to prepare a family tree for the confirmation of her parents and siblings.

“A number of people have claimed to be the parents and even the grandmother of the child. It is expected that more people will also claim to be parents of the child,” he said.

Dr Akram said samples had been collected from all the claimants to confirm who are the parents of the child. “It will take almost a week to get the DNA report,” he said.

Dr Akram told Dawn that the child initially claimed that she had fallen from the stairs and her hand was burnt while turning on a television. Then she started saying that she had slipped and got her hand burnt while cooking. But she also admitted that she had been tortured by the family.

“As a relation of master and slave had been developed, the child could not imagine the family of the judge can do anything unusual to her. There were marks of torture on the body which seemed to be of different time. This shows that the child had been facing torture for long,” he said.

“However, the incident is just a tip of the iceberg and there is a need to do legislation to check such cases. There is a law about children working in kilns but no law exists to protect children working in houses. The practice should be declared a crime,” he said.

In reply to a question, Dr Akram said the report would be handed over to the district administration for submission to the apex court.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2017