LAHORE, Nov 30: Dr Abdul Basit, the counsel for Tehmina Rana, the sister of Misbah Iram, has decided to move the Lahore High Court in an intra-court appeal on Friday.

Dr Basit, who felt dejected after losing the case of retaining the 12-year school girl with her father in Pakistan, told Dawn that he was not filing a petition for leave to appeal before the Supreme Court because the seven-day time given by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in his short order on Wednesday was too insufficient to get relief from the apex court.

Besides, he said, he did not want to lose an additional appellate forum (of the Lahore High Court) to get the Rana family’s grievances redressed.

The counsel said the whole family of the Scottish-Pakistani girl stood shattered by a “highly worrisome decision by a highly competent judge”. The family, he said, wanted the girl of this tender age to live and develop a sensibility of Islamic way of life. It also understood that once Misbah was mature enough to choose between Pakistan and the UK as her home, she would be free to live anywhere, according to the counsel.

Dr Basit said the family would implement the LHC decision by handing over the custody of Misbah to the British High Commission in Pakistan within a week along with her British and Pakistani passports. But at the same time, the family wanted to continue its legal battle in Pakistan and Scotland with the objective of securing Misbah’s custody through a legal process. —Correspondent