ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday arranged a meeting of a Lithuanian woman with her children after she had petitioned in court for their custody.

Maimouna Liskauskaite was meeting her children for the first time in seven years. The court had directed the Punjab police to bring her three daughters to Islamabad.

“The court directed the father of the children to arrange a house in Gujranwala where the children will stay with their mother for two weeks.

“The father will be responsible for their pick and drop to and from school and they will spend the remaining time with their mother. However, the children cannot be taken to Lahore without the presence of their father,” the petitioner’s lawyer, Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, told Dawn.

Ms Liskauskaite had converted from Christianity to Islam and had married a Pakistani citizen, Jamshed Siddique, in Lithuania in 2004. The couple and their three children had moved to Dubai in 2010 and settled there.

Her husband had in 2011 brought their daughters to Pakistan without her knowledge, divorced her and threw her out of their house.

Ms Liskauskaite had looked for her daughters since and recently found out where they were.

She had petitioned before the Lahore High Court, seeking custody of her daughters but the court had dismissed her petition on Feb 23, 2018. She then appealed to the SC.

SC had on March 30 ordered the Gujranwala district police officer to produce the three minor children of Ms Liskauskaite, who had filed a petition for their custody.

The court had also ordered the concerned police officers to ensure the children are not taken out of the country and also issued directions to the interior ministry to ensure compliance of the order.

Ordering for the girls to be handed over to their mother, the court also said the passports of Ms Liskauskaite and her daughters be deposited with the Human Rights Cell of the SC. Their security will be the responsibility of the DPO Gujranwala.

“I am very happy today and will spend my time with my daughters. I am thankful to the CJP,” Ms Liskauskaite said while talking to media persons.

The petitioner still lives in Dubai where she teaches in a nursery school. The next hearing will be held in two weeks.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2018