A local Karachi court on Tuesday restrained the media from disclosing the identity of a 15-year-old girl, who was reported as kidnapped from the city in April but later found to have purportedly ‘eloped’ in Punjab.

Judicial Magistrate (East) Aftab Ahmed Bughio passed the order in a matter related to the alleged kidnapping and underage marriage of the Karachi girl.

The district public prosecutor, Muhammad Younis, moved an application today under Rule 18 of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013.

In the plea, he requested the court to issue the necessary directives, restraining the media and others from disclosing the identity and address of the victim/minor.

Advocate Aamir Niaz, suspect Zaheer Ahmed’s counsel, also emphasised that the identity of the victim should be concealed.

After hearing arguments from the parties, the magistrate observed that the bare reading of Rule 18 made it very clear that the identity, address and pictures of the victims, under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, are prohibited from being published in media sources in order to secure the victim’s life and rights.

Allowing the application, the magistrate ordered that “all the media persons are hereby directed to ensure the identity of the victim in above captioned is not disclosed, and information already disclosed is also directed to be restrained from being further shared.”

The magistrate also directed his office to forward a copy of the order to all media regulating authorities.