PESHAWAR, July 2: The Peshawar High Court on Monday rescheduled the hearing into a case about a girl’s abduction and forced marriage for July 25 at the request of the petitioner.

Earlier, the hearing was slated to be held in September.

Abbas Ali, a resident of Islamabad, had filed an application with the court for early hearing into his petition seeking early recovery and protection of his daughter, who, he said, was kidnapped and forcibly married to a teenage boy in Hangu.

Sardar Tariq Gopang, lawyer for the petitioner, told Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan that by the time (September) the main writ petition would be heard by the court, it would be very late.

He said his client feared that his daughter, 27, who was at the advance stage of pregnancy, would be harmed by kidnappers.

He quoted Mr Abbas as saying the nikkah of his daughter was solemnised with one of his nephews, Faraz, and that she was kidnapped on December 13, 2009, in Islamabad. He added that 13 days after kidnapping, her daughter telephoned him to say that the kidnapper had forced her into marrying a 16-year-old boy, Zeeshan.

Mr Abbas told reporters outside the court that he paid kidnappers Rs7 million as ransom and even filmed the activity.

He said he later got an FIR registered against kidnappers in an Islamabad police station forcing them to produce his daughter in a court but she falsely stated there that she married to Zeeshan of his free will.

“She made the false statement out of fear because she was wearing a suicide vest at that time,” he claimed.

The petitioner also shared with journalists the recording of her daughter’s alleged cellphone call to him about her kidnapping and forced marriage. — Bureau Report