Parents’ meeting with underage girl allowed
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday allowed the parents of an underage girl, who was allegedly abducted from Karachi and later surfaced in Lahore, to meet her at a shelter home in the presence of a family judge and a child protection officer.
A single-judge bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar directed the director general of the child protection authority to ensure the visit of girl’s parents and sisters to the shelter home on Thursday (today).
It also asked the district and sessions judge (east) to depute any female family judge to visit the girl at the shelter home and must ensure that sufficient time was allowed to her parents for counselling and meeting the girl.
The lawyer for girl’s father said that he would be satisfied if the girl was thoroughly examined by a psychologist.
The bench directed the health secretary to depute a female psychiatric and psychologist, especially dealing with juvenile patients, to make frequent meetings with the girl.
Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022