KARACHI, May 13: A division bench of the Sindh High Court issued on Monday notices for May 27 to the superintendent Darul Aman, Sukkur, and the director social welfare department regarding the transfer of two girls from Darul Aman Sukkur to Edhi Home, Karachi.
The bench comprised Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mushir Alam.
On April 22, the court had asked Zia Ahmed Awan, the president of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), to assist the court and inquire about the girls at Edhi Home, Karachi.
When the matter came up before the court on Monday, counsel Zia informed the court that he had contacted the Edhi Centre but neither the girls were present there nor had he found any record of entry of the girls at the Edhi Centre. The court also instructed Suleman Habibullah, Additional Advocate-General, to submit his comments about the case.
On March 30, 2000, a division bench of the Sindh High Court at Sukkur, consisting of Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mushir Alam, had heard the habeas corpus petition of Sardar Akbar Ujan for two minor Bengali trafficked girls, Ms Sultana and Ms Kulsoom, lodged in Darul Aman, Sukkur.
At the hearing, the girls had recorded their statements with the help of an interpreter. The girls had told the court that they had been abducted at their native places in Bangladesh and traded from one person to another and from place to place and they ultimately landed in Darul Aman, Sukkur.
Kulsoom had told the court that she was 14 years of age and worked in a garment factory, in 2000, in Dhaka. She informed the court that she had been given something to eat by another woman after which she became unconscious. When she regained consciousness, she found herself in India. She claimed that Jawed and Mannan had brought her from India to Karachi. According to her, Sono, Sattar, Mohammed Ali and Khaliqdino handed her over to Hoto.
Sultana, who was also 14, was given pastry to eat after closing of the school in Dhaka. She also gave the name of the same traffickers.
Both of them had desired to go with the petitioner, Sardar Akbar Ujan, a practising lawyer, but Hoto, an intervener in the case, claimed Ms Sultana’s custody and asserted that she was his wife.
After hearing the arguments, the court ordered that both the detainees be shifted to the Edhi Centre, Karachi. In its judgment the court observed that, without doubting the integrity of the petitioner, it was not persuaded to give the custody of the detainees to him because the detainees had been brought to the petitioner by a person, who had allegedly been involved in their trafficking.
The court had also denied handing over Ms Sultana to Hoto, who claimed to be her husband, because she denied the Nikah and in her recorded statement she claimed that Hoto bought her for Rs59,000.