ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday handed over custody of two children to their Polish mothers and directed their Pakistani father to surrender passports of the minors to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani resumed hearing on the petitions filed by the Polish women, Isa Nowa, and Johana Mohammad, seeking custody of their children from their Pakistani father Saleem Mohammad.

The officials from the Polish embassy also appeared before the court.

Saleem Mohammad produced the permission that enabled him to bring his children to Pakistan.

He told the court that he brought the children to Pakistan in August 2021 with the consent of their mothers, adding that his relations with his former wives became strained because they used to take the children to the church. He said he was running a food chain in Poland and financially helped both women.

Mohammad said he got Polish nationality in 2012 and told the court that he could rescind the foreign nationality for the sake of his children.

Justice Kayani remarked that the petitioner could educate his children in Poland to which Mohammad told the court that it would not be easy as the mosque was at a distance of about 300km from his home. The counsel for his former wife, Isa Nowa, told the court that Saleem Mohammad had a son named Mohammad Ahmed with Isa and a daughter, Sadia, with Johana Mohammad.

The court inquired if the women wanted to discuss anything with their former husband, but both refused to talk to him. The court handed over custody of the minors to their mothers and allowed them to keep the children in the embassy and produce them before the court on Wednesday (today).

According to the counsel for the Polish women, Saleem Mohammad had brought his son and daughter to Pakistan from Poland on a two-week visit. However, he cancelled his return tickets and did not take the children back to Poland on the pretext of travel restriction due to Covid-19.

He again bought tickets after 25 days and informed their mothers about his return. Both women kept waiting at the airport but Mohammad switched off his mobile phone, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2022