KARACHI, Feb 16: A man sold his 10-year-old daughter for $500 to pay for his eye operation, a police official said on Friday.

The father, Noor Mohammad, had agreed to hand his daughter over to a fellow villager, Gul Mohammad Kalohi, once she reached puberty, said Abdul Hadi, District Police Officer for Badin, some 250km east of Karachi.

“It is a shameful incident,” Hadi said, adding: “We were informed about it through a complaint made by a relative of the father.”

Police have completed their investigation of the case, but no charges have been framed yet due to a jurisdiction dispute as Kolai village, near Tando Bagho town, lay on a boundary.

Under the children's protection law in Sindh, the man could be sentenced to a year in prison, said Zia Awan advocate.—Reuters