TOBA TEK SINGH: A 15-year-old girl, rescued by people from a rickshaw driver near Pirmahal some nine months ago, has been waiting for her family in the shelter (Darul Aman) of Toba Tek Singh.

Shelter home in charge Rai Abdul Shakoor Marth told reporters that Madeeha was sent to the shelter on April 13, 2016, by civil judge Tahira Parveen Cheema.

He said Nawaz Kathia and Muhammad Anwar, both of Chak 728-GB, Pirmahal, had found her at a barber’s shop and took her to the Pirmahal police station. The police produced her before the judge the same day who sent her to the shelter till her parents come to take her.

Madeeha told reporters that she was born in a village near Gujranwala. She does not remember the village name. Her father, Suleman, died when she was young and her mother, Sohni Pari, and aunt (name not known by her) took her to the house of businessman Mani Bhai in Gujranwala where she had worked as domestic help for several years.

She said her employer and his wife Amna (a schoolteacher) lived in a house located in Gujranwala Cantonment. She said Mani Bhai, Amna and their children -- Ahmad, Qasim and Eiman -- treated her well. Some 10 months ago, her life took new turn when her aunt came to them, quarrelled with Mani Bhai and his wife over some issue and brought her back to home. Later, she left her in a house in Faisalabad. She said her new masters were cruel, so she left the house after few weeks.

She was asking people at a chowk around the house how to go to Gujranwala Cantonment when a rickshaw driver offered her to take her to Gujranwala. The driver took her to bus stand where he parked his rickshaw and they both got on a bus. After one hour drive, they got off the bus in a small town.

The driver took her to barber shop and asked her to sit there. As he went away, some people in the shop asked her about her and she told them that rickshaw driver was taking her to Gujranwala, they got alerted.

They told her that she was in Pirmahal and the driver was misleading her. In the meantime, the rickshaw driver arrived there in a car with another man. She refused to get on the car and started crying. Several people gathered at the scene and soon arrived the police and the rest is the history.

She said she now wanted to go to Mani Bhai’s house who and his family members were very good people.

In charge Marth said he tried to find her mother’s address and Mani’s address in Gujranwala but failed.

He said whenever the children residing the shelter leave on court orders, Madeeha starts crying and questions if there is no one to take her too. He said several people had contacted them to take her custody but how could he hand them over the young girl.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017