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September 2, 2006

Pakistan: Court Awards Father Custody In Islamic Prejudice Against Christian Mother

We reported on August 29 that a 12 year old child, Molly Campbell, appeared to have been abducted to Pakistan by her elder sister and her Muslim father. Molly, who is also called Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, is legally the ward of her mother Louise, following her divorce from Sajad Rana in 2001.

The child's grandmother had claimed that Molly had been taken to Pakistan because her father wanted her to become married to a 25-year old man.

The story has now become more complicated than it first appeared. Molly had lied to friends that she wanted to stay in Stornaway on the island of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland. She was aware that she was going to Pakistan, and an article in the Pakistan Daily Times quotes Mohammed Sarwar (UK member of parliament for Glasgow Central), who visited Molly in Lahore, Pakistan. Sarwar stated that Molly did not want to leave Pakistan.

According to today's Times, Molly wants to be known by her Muslim name, and says that she had begged her father to take her away from her mother.

The house where she now stays with her father is a luxurious villa, and certainly more comfortable than the semi-detached bungalow in Lewis which she shared with her mother Louise.

Sarwar claimed that Mr Rana had offered to pay for Louise to be flown out to Pakistan to stay in a hotel to be close to her family. Sarwar said: "I think to have a happy ending it would be best if everybody was talking."

Molly said: "It was my own choice. I asked my sister if I could go with her her. I knew that my mum would miss me, but I miss my family."

But despite the child's statements, and the platitudes uttered by the biased Mohammed Sarwar, who has been a friend of Mr Rana for 15 years, the fact remains that Rana broke a court order by abducting the child.

Another article in the Times states that under the Anglo-Pakistan agreement of 2003 on child abduction, it is likely that Molly will be returned to her mother while a court examines the situation.

Anne-Marie Hutchinson, chairman of the charity Reunite states that a court's duty is decide a child's welfare not to grant what a child wants. She states: "What a child says they want will not always be in their best interests. They may say they want to stay with someone who is a bad parent."

But despite the Anglo-Pakistan agreement on child abduction, an update from the Daily Mail reports that a verdict passed down by the Session Court of the Civil Judge in Lahore has made an interim order that Molly should remain with her father.

For her mother to appeal against the decision and to argue her case for custody, Louise Campbell must appear in person in Lahore on Wednesday (September 6).

But what is shocking is that the decision has been made not because of any " Anglo-Pakistan agreement of 2003" or concerns about legal rights under this agreement, but on account of religion, and of course, Islam is regarded as superior to other faiths. Louise Campbell had converted to Islam when she married Molly's father. But she became a Christian again after the 2001 divorce.

Rana's lawyer, Dr Abdul Biset, said: "Louise Campbell is a re-convert and according to Pakistani law an apostate is devoid of all rights and deserves punishment."

Louise launched her own legal action for custody at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Friday September 1.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 2, 2006 6:54 PM

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