While hearing pleas of two Polish women seeking custody of their children on Tuesday senior puisne judge of the Islamabad High Court Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani has ordered to hand over the two kids to their mothers. Polish women Iza Nowak and Joanna Rycharska invoked jurisdiction of the IHC for remedy in the matter.
Hailing the court directives, Human Rights activist and Juvenile Justice expert Sharafat Ali Chaudhry expressed that in addition to right to health, education, play and recreation, an adequate standard of living and to be protected from abuse and harm the children have family life right.
A bench of the Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued the directives in response to appearance of the Polish women, Muhammad Saleem and the Polish Embassy officials ordering to keep the two children in the Polish Embassy and adjourned hearing of kids’ custody case till Wednesday (today).
The counsel for the petitioners prayed the court to hear the children inside the chamber. He said that the father of kids brought them here to spend vacations but he didn’t get back to Poland. The father had illegally detained the kids for fourteen months and deprived the children from mothers.
He said that the family court of Pakistan couldn’t decide the kids’ custody dispute. The lawyer also gave the reference of top court’s verdict in similar cases in which children were handed over to the mothers. He prayed the court to grant the custody of kids to his clients.
The lawyer said that one of his client woman had embraced Islam in 2005 before her marriage. However, the other woman told the court that she had not married the said Pakistani citizen and she had not embraced Islam. She said that the children were studying at a Poland school.
The court was told that the children were also going to school in Rawalpindi. Muhammad Saleem, the father, adopted the stance that the court could take the opinion of children who were more than seven years old.
On the occasion, Justice Kayani interviewed the children inside his chamber. The AAG said that it had to be viewed with whom the children were staying at last time. He requested the court to decide on the legal guardian of the children. He said how the religion of six-year-old children could be changed.
To a query of the bench, the father said that the women could meet their children anytime and he was ready to bear their travel expenditures. The woman also said that the father could meet anytime if they were granted the kids’ custody.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the court ordered them to hand over the children to the mothers and instructed them to remove their names from the ECL. The court said that the children could meet their father anytime in Pakistan and women had to ensure this. The court disposed of the case.
