LAHORE, July 5: An old man is running from pillar to post to get his one-year-old grandson recovered from his daughter’s in-laws, but in spite of four court orders and a written direction by the Punjab IG, Pakpattan Sadar police have failed to recover the baby.

Nadia Bibi, the mother, is in a state of shock since her father-in-law Abdul Ghafoor and mother-in-law Shamim Bibi, residents of Mohalla Pir Karian, Pakpattan, kicked her out of her house two months back after snatching her baby, Zohaib Ahmad, from her.

Nadia’s father Iqbal of Meerpur Juggian village, Sattokatla, who is a gardener, told Dawn that he had married his daughter to his relative Zahoor Ahmad in March 2006.

He said the in-laws of Nadia started quarreling with her from the very beginning and used to force Zahoor to divorce her so that he could be married with his cousin.

Zahoor left his parents’ house and shifted to Meerpur Juggian village along with his family, Iqbal said and added that later Ghafoor and his wife also started living in Lahore and continued persuading their son to divorce Nadia.

Succumbing to his parents’ pressure, Zahoor ultimately one day thrashed Nadia and snatched the baby from her. After Nadia returned to her parents her dejected husband took poison and later expired in the Jinnah Hospital.

Iqbal said after Zahoor’s suicide, Ghafoor and his wife promised him they would hand over the child to Nadia after a year. However, he said, after passage of a year in May 2008, when Nadia asked her in-laws to hand over the child as she wanted to go to her parents’ house, they abused her and refused to accept her demand. The aggrieved Nadia returned to Lahore without the baby.

Iqbal said he filed an appeal with Pakpattan district and sessions court for recovery of the child which twice issued orders to the Pakpattan Saddar police SHO in this regard, on May 23 and May 30, respectively, but to no avail.

Iqbal then submitted an application to the IG which was marked to the Pakpattan DPO on June 10, 2008.

In the meantime, the same court issued another recovery order to the police giving a deadline of June 27, but as there was no recovery of the child, it was extended till July 5, 2008.

Iqbal said after conducting several raids and no recovery, police were asking him to trace Ghafoor. Being a poor gardener, he said, he had no resources to recover the child on his own.

SHO concerned Mirza Asif Ali told Dawn that the court had already asked the complainants to identify the hideout of the accused so that police could recover the child.

He said the police had presented Ghafoor’s daughter before the judge but he ordered them not to harass the family members of the accused.

He said the police were ready to act if provided with any information about the accused by Iqbal.