SAHIWAL: The additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) and presiding officer of the Child Protection Court, Sahiwal, has directed the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) to hand over custody of 17 minor children to their parents/guardians following due verification and recognition of the petitioners by the child.

The judge further instructed that custody be granted if the child’s identification satisfies the court, and proceedings should continue in accordance with the law.

This order was issued while disposing of the petition, titled Allah Yar vs the State, filed for the custody of a minor child through counsel, Muhammad Sajid Khan, in tehsil court Chichawatni.

Mr Akbar Ali Dhudi, the legal representative of the CPWB, was also present during the hearing. According to Muhammad Adnan, district officer CPWB, the parents arrived at the bureau’s office and the children were handed over to them following the court’s instructions.

The petition was filed on Sept 27 and was decided just yesterday evening prior to the handover.

It is learnt that the court conducted thorough verification of the parents, including checking their CNICs and asked each child about their parents. The judge also personally questioned the minors to confirm the identity of their parents. Muhammad Adnan added that the bureau had documented the handover by taking photographs of each child with their respective parents. The children were safely reunited with their families.

Earlier, the medical examination of 18 minor children —17 of whom belong to Balochistan — recovered from an unregistered orphanage in Chichawatni City earlier this week, was conducted this morning at the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital (STH).

According to official sources, a five-member medical board, led by Dr Muhammad Naeem Atta, additional medical superintendent, carried out the physical assessments and preliminary lab tests within the hospital premises.

Speaking to Dawn, Dr Atta confirmed that the board examined all children and that medical reports were expected within two days. The examination was ordered by Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Tariq who had earlier transferred custody of the children to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB).

In a parallel legal development, the parents of the 17 children from Balochistan, through their counsel, appeared before the court of ADSJ Rana Tariq, seeking legal custody of their children.

The children were initially handed over to the CPWB after a disturbing video surfaced on local social media, showing a teacher brutally beating a 10-year-old boy with sticks on the premises of Ahmed Welfare Foundation, an unregistered orphanage.

Acting on the directives of the district police officer (DPO) Chichawatni, police raided the facility and arrested the teacher. Following the incident, the CPWB’s district office intervened, citing the orphanage’s illegal status and lack of registration both with the Social Welfare Department and CPWB.

The court subsequently issued a production order, enabling the CPWB to recover the children and place them under its care. Since then, the bureau provided food, clothing and shelter to the children and it enrolled them in Class I and II with books and uniforms.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2025