Elishba Adnan. (Christian Daily International-Morning Star New courtesy of family)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – In a significant development, a court in Pakistan refused to hand custody of a Catholic girl to a Muslim who abducted and forcibly converted/married her, noting that as a minor she could not go with him even if she said she was willing to do so, sources said.
Burewala Magistrate Tajamal Hussain on Thursday (July 3) recorded the claim of 14-year-old Elishba Adnan that she had converted to Islam and married Babar Mukhtar of her own free will.
“In her statement recorded under her alleged Islamic name ‘Fatima Bibi,’ Elishba claimed that she had married Mukhtar on June 12 and wanted to live with him,” rights activist Albert Patras told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “However, the magistrate took note of her birth certificate presented by her parents, which showed that she was a minor, therefore her alleged marriage to a man twice her age was illegal under Punjab’s anti-child marriage laws.”
Patras said that their lawyer also told the court that the accused had committed statutory rape under Section 375 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which bars sexual relations with a girl under the age of 16 even in the guise of marriage.
“The court conceded that a minor’s consent to having sex had no legal value, referring to Section 29(e) of The Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act of 2021 that defines a ‘victim’ to include any person under 18 subjected to sexual violence, including under the guise of marriage,” he told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Discussing the Islamic perspective on child marriages, the magistrate observed in his order that “while traditional interpretations may permit marriage at puberty, modern Islamic scholars and judicial precedents emphasize the principle of welfare.”
“Courts in Pakistan have increasingly discouraged child marriages in light of evolving social conditions and public interest mandates,” the magistrate wrote in the order.
The court decided to send Elishba to a women’s shelter after she refused to go with her parents under Section 10 of the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act (ZARRA) 2020. Section 10 bars the release of any recovered minor to any person “unless the competent authority is satisfied that doing so is safe and in the best interest of the child.”
The ZARRA Act also stresses rehabilitation, education and protection of minors recovered in criminal contexts, the order stated.
Declaring that Elishba’s elopement from her home fell under the definition of abduction, magistrate Hussain ordered that she be sent to a shelter home in Vehari District, Punjab Province, after she refused to go with her parents.
“The shelter home shall ensure education, counselling, healthcare and psychological support to the minor,” the court ordered, restricting her parents and Mukhtar from attempting to influence, pressure or contact her without court permission.
Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic “marriages” and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the children’s ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their “legal wives.”
Elishba’s father, sanitation worker Adnan Masih, said he was grateful to the court for denying his daughter’s custody to Mukhtar.
“Mukhtar has either brainwashed or intimidated my child due to which she was adamant to go with him,” Masih said. “We did not get a chance to speak to her in private to ascertain the actual reason for her refusal, but I’m sure she’ll reveal the truth when she’s not under Mukhtar’s influence or threats.”
Masih said his family was hoping that Elishba would return home soon and start life afresh. The oldest of Masih’s six children, she had dropped out of school some months ago to help her mother in taking care of her newborn twin brothers.
She went missing from home on June 11, but police delayed registering an abduction case for 11 days despite her father’s repeated visits to the police station, he said.
The delay in the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) significantly impacted the legal proceedings for the recovery of the child and exacerbated the family’s distress, Patras said.
Christian attorney Lazar Allah Rakha lauded the magistrate for covering critical aspects of the child marriage issue in his judgment.
“Such courageous judgments are rare in our country, where religious sentiments run high, compounding barriers to justice for the vulnerable communities, particularly Christians,” said Rakha.
The rare order by the magistrate, however, stopped short of ordering criminal action against Mukhtar, Patras said.
“While we appreciate the magistrate for delving into the case in detail, he should have ordered stern legal action against the accused,” Patras told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “We will now file an application with the police to register a case against Mukhtar under the anti-child marriage and anti-rape laws and begin criminal proceedings against him.”
Rakha said the court’s order validates the attorney’s stance that sexual exploitation of underage minority girls under the garb of Islamic marriages is a serious criminal offense and must be prosecuted as such.
“Moreover, the court has declared Elishba a ‘minor,’ therefore her parents are her lawful custodians,” he added. “The issue of custody of the girl can provide a good basis for filing of a constitutional petition in the high court, which may have a strategic impact on cases of similar nature.”
Police also should be held accountable for delaying registration of the FIR for more than 10 days, he said.
“The high court may also be prayed to direct the police department to ensure timely registration of cases involving underage minority girls as delays in police action enables the perpetrators to use religion as a means to cover their crime,” he said.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on May 29 signed into law a landmark bill to curb child marriage, setting the minimum age for marriage for both genders at 18 years in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) despite fierce opposition from Islamist groups, including the country’s top Islamic body, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).
The CII declared that classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with sharia (Islamic law).
A similar bill has been awaiting a vote in the Punjab Provincial Assembly since April 25, 2024. Currently the minimum age for girls to marry is still 16 in the province. Nationally, the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act 2024 set the marriageable age at 18 only for Christians; if they convert to Islam, girls considered Muslims come under sharia, which allows them to marry younger.
Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.
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