LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought replies from the provincial law ministry and other departments on a petition by a former superintendent of Kashana Welfare Centre, a government-run Darul Aman for destitute girls, seeking a judicial inquiry into alleged misuse of the orphan girls living in the facility by powerful ministers.

Afshan Latif, the suspended superintendent of Kashana, contended in her petition that the government had victimised her for revealing the truth. She claimed that she refused to fulfill illegal orders and immoral demands of social welfare department’s former director general Afshan Kiran and former provincial minister Ajmal Cheema.

Ms Latif had filed a complaint to her department against Kashana DG Afshan Kiran. She alleged that the DG pressurised her to marry off underage girls to high-ranking officials.

She alleged the treatment being meted out to the orphan girls at the state-run facility was a cruelty and needed a judicial inquiry to bring the responsible to book.

She asked the court to order a judicial inquiry and also hand over control of Kashana to an independent individual till the findings of the inquiry. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan adjourned hearing till Dec 24.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2019