LAHORE: A woman was denied custody of her five children by the Lahore High Court on Friday.

The woman burst into tears and almost fell unconscious after Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem dismissed her petition and handed over her children to their grandfather.

Although the law of guardianship is flexible, legal experts see the decision as unfair and subjective.

Rizwana of Shahdara had filed a habeas corpus petition seeking recovery of her three sons and two daughters from her in-laws. Her husband, Liaquat Ali, works in Dubai.

She told the court that her in-laws had kicked her and her children out of the home two months ago. However, her father-in-law, Muhammad Saleem, went over to her parents’ house on Aug 22 and forcibly took away her children -- Ahmad Ali, 14, Muzammil, 11, Dawood Husain, 9, Amina, 6, and Maryam, 4.

On the court’s notice, Sabazpeer police in Sialkot produced Saleem and the children before the court.

Saleem denied the charges and claimed no one expelled Rizwana from the house. He claimed she left the house on her own, adding the children did not want to live with their mother.

At this Justice Naeem asked Ahmad Ali, the eldest child, whether he wanted to go with his mother. The boy refused, casting aspersions on Rizwana. Relying on the boy’s statement, the judge dismissed the petition and handed over children’s custody to Saleem.

Saleem had to drag the younger children with the help of court’s security personnel as they were not willing to leave their mother.

A former office-bearer of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Advocate Rabbiya Bajwa, said welfare of minors cannot be ignored while deciding a custody issue. About the decision in Rizwana’s case, she said it was subjective that ignored welfare of the children.

A senior bar member, Barrister Maqsooma Zahra Bokhari, said the statement of a grownup child does matter in custody cases. However, the court should carefully examine whether the child was taught what to say, she added.

She said depriving a mother of custody on the statement of a child only was not fair. She said a teenaged child cannot understand the notion of ‘bad character’.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play