PESHAWAR, Aug 1: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition filed by a former husband of a Kyrgyz woman challenging the grant of custody of their two minor sons to her and allowing online visitation to him by a subordinate court.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Roohul Amin observed that the internet video conference was the most modern technology and it could be availed by the petitioner, Shaukat Ali, to see and talk to his two sons.

The petitioner had challenged the orders of a guardian judge and an additional district and sessions judge, requesting the court to allow the custody of the boys - Ahmad Ali and Sudais Mohammad, both below six years of age – to him as the woman, Ms Temirova Nurzhanal Osmonalyevna, was a foreigner and Pakistani law could not be applied to her.

The bench observed that the orders of the subordinate courts were based on Islamic as well as English law and that it had to consider the welfare of the two children.

The chief justice observed that the woman had visited Pakistan from Kyrgyzstan to get back her children who were illegally brought to Pakistan by the petitioner. The court noted that the petitioner had so far not returned from abroad, which showed how much interest he was having with his sons.

The guardian judge, Ms Quratul Ain, had on July 11 allowed custody of the two boys to their mother, directing that till they attain the age of 17 they should remain with her. About visitation right to the father, the court had directed that he should be allowed twice in a year to meet the two boys at the Kyrgyz embassy in Islamabad.

Later, the additional district and session judge upheld the orders of the guardian judge, but modified the directives and also allowed online visitation to the father through internet video conference on fortnight basis. About physical visitation the court ordered that the father was entitled to visit children as and when he happened to be in Kyrgyzstan.

Advocates Usman Khan Turlandi and Manzoor Khalil appeared for the petitioner and contended that the Guardian and Ward Act did not apply to the woman and she was a foreigner and living outside the territorial jurisdiction of the guardian court. They stated that the court would not be in a position to implement its orders regarding visitation rights.

The counsel also asked what would be the fate of the two boys if the woman remarried someone.

The two boys were earlier recovered on the orders of the high court by Federal Investigation Agency over a writ petition filed by the Kyrgyz woman from Mardan where they were staying with their maternal aunt.