ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a Lithuanian woman to stay with her three daughters for another three weeks.

The court also directed the guardian judge of Gujranwala to check whether the woman has been provided the proper facilities by her ex-husband.

On the directives of the apex court, the Punjab police had brought the woman’s three children to Islamabad on April 2 where they met their mother after seven years.

The court also directed her ex-husband to arrange a house for her so that she could stay with her daughters for two weeks.

The woman’s lawyer, Ch Faisal Hussain, while talking to Dawn, said that though her ex-husband had arranged a house, he was continuously contacting his daughters.

He said there were no facilities in the house, not even a television.

Replying to a question, he said the woman had three-month visa, on which she now has two months left.

The woman, her three daughters and her ex-husband were present in court on Wednesday.

On March 30, the SC had ordered the Gujranwala district police officer (DPO) to produce the daughters of a Lithuanian woman who converted to Islam to marry a Pakistani citizen. The couple later divorced.

The orders were issued on a petition moved by Maimouna Liskauskaite seeking the recovery of her daughters Ayesha Siddique, Maryam Siddique and Amna Siddique from the alleged improper custody of her ex-husband Jamshed Siddique.

The court also ordered that the passport of mother and her daughters be deposited in SC’s Human Rights Cell.

The petitioner lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where she is employed as a teacher at Jebel Ali Village Nursery.

She converted to Islam on Jan 7, 2004, of her own free will and married Mr Siddique. The marriage was solemnised in Lithuania. On Dec 19, 2010 the couple and their daughters settled in Dubai.

On April 4, 2011, the husband came to Pakistan along with their daughters without informing the woman. The husband took the daughters on the pretext of visiting the Al-Safa Park Dubai but never returned and remained untraceable in spite of the woman’s best efforts to locate them for seven long years, leaving her isolated and putting her in mental and financial distress.

The petition said that the woman’s ex-husband divorced her on April 7, 2011 and the same day her in-laws threw her out of their house. The mother found out after some time that he, along with their daughters, was living in Pakistan.

She then instituted a petition before the Lahore High Court seeking custody of her daughters but the high court dismissed her petition on Feb 23, 2018. Consequently she moved to the Supreme Court through an appeal.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018