HYDERABAD, May 14: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, here on Friday ordered the district and sessions judge of Shikarpur to hold a proper inquiry into the case of a teenaged girl who would be produced before him from Hyderabad.

The bench, comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Mohammad Mujeebullah Siddiqui, passed the order on a petition filed by the girl, Zainoo. She prayed the court to allow her to go to her native town of Shikarpur from Darul Aman, Qasimabad.

The girl had approached the SDM of Latifabad after she got rid of a corrupt woman residing in Qasimabad and was remanded to the Darul Aman by him.

The woman tried to seek her custody through different means but could not succeed. On one occasion she filed an application before the court of judicial magistrate-I, claiming herself to be mother of the girl.

Since then, Zainoo was living in the Darul Aman and kept asking its staff to send her to Shikarpur. She had also fallen ill here because of mental stress.

The girl had disclosed names of her relatives, Imdad Sheikh and Nazar Sheikh, her maternal grandfather and cousin, respectively, but they did not reply letters sent to them. Then she spoke about her aunt who was residing in Hala Naka.

A woman, claiming to be her aunt, appeared before the magistrate who was told by the girl that she was not her aunt, forcing the court to send her back to the Darul Aman.

The girl told the SHC bench that her family was poor and that her father was a drug addict.

The assistant director of Darul Aman raised no objection if appropriate orders were passed by the court.

Lawyer Zahoor A. Baloch, who was present during the proceedings, offered to bear her travelling expenses if she was sent to the sessions judge of Shikarpur, who is also the director of the Human Rights Board.

The court ordered that the girl should be sent to the Darul Aman, Sukkur, with police squad including women police, and lodged there. From there, the order said, she should be produced before the Shikarpur judge for passing an appropriate order after hearing her and her relatives and holding a proper inquiry.