A sessions court on Thursday granted bail to the main suspect in a case pertaining to the alleged underage marriage of Arzoo — a teenage Christian girl who was allegedly abducted before being forcefully converted and married to a Muslim man.

Police have detained and booked the main suspect Syed Ali Azhar, cleric Qazi Abdul Rasool Naqshbandi who allegedly performed the underage marriage, the Justice of Peace who issued the marriage certificate, and facilitators and witnesses under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 3 of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013.

On Thursday, the matter came up before the additional district and sessions judge (South) Faiza Khalil, who pronounced the verdict on an application filed by Azhar, seeking bail after arrest.

The judge allowed his application and granted him bail against a surety of Rs500,000.

However, his defence counsel told Dawn that Azhar could not be immediately released due to delays in verifying the surety, adding that he was expected to be released on Friday (tomorrow).

Earlier, the defence counsel had argued in the bail plea that his client was innocent and falsely implicated in the case, since Arzoo had recorded her statement before the Sindh High Court (SHC).

He further argued that the girl had also testified before the court that she converted to Islam out of her own choice and had married the applicant out of her free will without any force or pressure.

The counsel argued that Section 376 was not applicable against his client since the girl had reached puberty. Therefore, she was able to get married in light of Islamic laws as well as the judgements rendered by superior courts.

He added that the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court and the higher courts in their judgments passed in 1932 and 1994 had declared that any girl or boy would be considered an adult after reaching puberty.

The apex courts have also ruled that where there is a contradiction in the law of the land, the Islamic law would prevail, he added.

Similarly, the counsel argued that the provisions of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act were applicable against the parents of any child. However, the same were not applicable against Azhar in the present case since the girl was an adult, he said.

On the other hand, Jibran Nasir — the lawyer for the complainant — vehemently opposed the bail plea of the main suspect.

Taking to Twitter, he said: "There are good, bad and at times even dark days for justice."

The same court also confirmed the pre-arrest bail granted to the cleric Abdul Rasool Naqshbandi, Justice of Peace Azharuddin and Advocate Mahmood Hasan, who have been booked for allegedly facilitating and officiating the underage marriage.

They had moved applications seeking confirmation of interim pre-arrest bail granted to them earlier against a surety of Rs100,000 each.