ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi police have failed to recover the children of a British national from the custody of her ex-husband despite clear directions by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The Rawalpindi bench of the LHC on March 18 directed the city police officer (CPO) to recover Najam Raja, Shaheer and Ayesah, the children of Tayyaba Bano, from the custody of her ex-husband Anjam Riaz, a former official of an intelligence agency.

The court also directed the CPO to produce the minors before the court on March 26. The direction was issued on a petition filed by Ms Bano through her counsel Faisal Hussain Chaudhry.

However, when the hearing of the petition resumed on Thursday, Israr Ahmed Abbasi, the CPO, appeared before the court without the children.

When Justice Tariq Abbasi asked him why the police could not recover the minors, the CPO claimed that the police had got some clues to the father. He requested the court to give him two weeks to trace Mr Anjum and recover the children. Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned for a couple of weeks.

According to the petition, Ms Bano was married to Mr Anjum in 2005 after which the couple moved to the United Kingdom. As per the FIR Ms Bano got registered with the Morgah police, her husband developed a drug problem after the birth of their first child. The British police removed him from the family’s home after a case of domestic violence but he managed to reconcile with Ms Bano and started living with her. But she finally divorced him in 2011 after which Mr Anjum moved back to Rawalpindi.

However, after some time, he again approached her, claiming to be a changed man. He also asked Ms Bano to bring the children to Pakistan as he missed them a lot. In March 2013, she reached Pakistan along with the children. However, she claimed, Mr Anjum destroyed her passport and her in-laws refused to hand over the children back to her. She contacted the British High Commission in Islamabad which arranged her documents enabling her to travel back to Britain.

Upon reaching the UK in October 2014, she filed an application with the Luton County court which ordered that the minors be returned to England. The court also ordered the issuance of emergency travel documents for the minors.

She returned to Pakistan to claim her children but found her former husband going into hiding, taking the three children along.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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