By IANS
Lahore : The Lahore High Court has given Pakistan police two weeks to recover a seven-year-old child caught in a custody battle between his Pakistani father, who has allegedly abducted him, and French mother.
Asma Jehangir, the mother’s counsel and well-known human rights activist, urged the court to decide a “question of a great importance” — whether an agreement the parents struck in France would be executable in Pakistan.
She told the court that the Pakistan Supreme Court too had respected the spirit of The Hague Convention in its rulings.
Police has yet to recover the seven-year old child, allegedly abducted by his father Mohammed Ishfaque, although the petitioners had helped in locating the father’s address and the court had given three deadlines earlier, Daily Times said Wednesday.
Jehangir sought permission for criminal proceedings against Ishfaque who she said had abducted the child, left in his custody by the mother on June 13 this year, despite an agreement the couple had reached before a French court that they would have joint custody.
The judiciary in Pakistan is often called upon to adjudicate over conflicting claims of Pakistani fathers who marry while abroad but want to bring back their children to raise them according to their culture.
The Lahore court had earlier ruled on a similar case of a Pakistani father and Scottish mother fighting for custody of their daughter. The father had forcibly brought the girl to Pakistan, the mother said while seeking the help of the British High Commission.
However, when the daughter said she wanted to live with her father and elder sister in Pakistan, the mother dropped the claim saying she could not afford to continue litigation from Britain.