The Karachi girl who contracted the marriage of her own free will has been presented before a medical board to determine her age.
Dua Zehra has been transferred from Lahore to Karachi, where a medical board will decide her age once more. Zaheer Ahmad, her husband, has also arrived in Karachi.
On June 6, the Sindh High Court ordered a medical examination for Dua, who ran away from her home in Karachi’s Shah Faisal Colony in April and was subsequently discovered to have married a male in Punjab. Her parents claimed she was under the age of 14 at the time of her marriage. On the order of the SHC, the Civil Hospital in Karachi conducted her test, which confirmed that the girl’s age was between 16 and 17.
But Dua’s father Mehdi Kazmi rejected the medical report terming it fake and requested fresh medical tests. He filed a fresh petition in the Court of Judicial Magistrate East in the last week of June and the judge ordered the police to continue the investigation to determine the age of Dua Zehra.
Dua’s father plea for IO change rejected
Meanwhile, a sessions court in Karachi rejected Dua Zehra’s father’s bid to alter the investigating officer in the case on Saturday.
The court stated in its decision that it had not yet accepted the IO’s C Class report. The ruling stated that Dua has yet to be presented to the medical board and that the court could not replace the investigating officer at this level of the investigation.
