ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the UK-born schoolgirl, Misbah Irum Rana, would stay with her father in Pakistan.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad was hearing a petition by Sajjad Ahmed Rana, the father of the girl, against a Lahore High Court decision ordering the 12-year-old girl to return to her mother in Scotland.

The bench overturned the November 29, 2006 LHC judgment on a habeas corpus petition of the mother, with the observation that the high court order would not be quoted ever as precedence in future.

Misbah had fled Scotland in August last year along with her elder sister Tehmina to join her father in Pakistan. This prompted her mother to approach Edinburgh’s Lord Ordinary Sessions Judge Lady Anne Smith accusing that her daughter was taken unlawfully and therefore should return home in Western Isle, Scotland. The Scottish court held that Misbah should stay with her mother since the schoolgirl was a UK citizen.

On Thursday, a compromise agreement, which became an integral part of the Supreme Court judgment, was reached after protracted negotiations between the two parties.

The consent allows Louise Anne Fairley to visit her daughter whenever she desires for whatever period. The mother would be accommodated at a hotel or a decent place in Lahore. She will have to intimate the Registrar of the Supreme Court about her travelling plans in advance to work out the cost of her visit and stay expense in pounds sterling.

In return, Sajjad Ahmed Rana will deposit the amount in the office of the registrar and the same would be reimbursed to the mother on her arrival to Pakistan.

Mr Rana will have no excuse to delay the amount so computed, otherwise he would be dealt with contempt of the court.