Polish women win custody of children

Court also directs father to surrender passports of the minors

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) yesterday granted two Polish women custody of their children from their ex-husband in Pakistan.

The IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the verdict while hearing a petition filed by two Polish women who were married to a Pakistani businessman Saleem Muhammad — a resident of Sialkot.

The high court had a day earlier allowed the petitioners, Isa Nowa and Johana Mohammad, to meet their young ones, a boy and a girl, and adjourned the hearing for a day.

The court had also directed the man to surrender the passports of the minors to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Yesterday, as the court resumed hearing, the judge asked the FIA official if the children’s passports were in FIA possession, to which he replied in the affirmative.

Upon hearing this, the court directed the agency to hand their passports to the petitioners and remove their names from the Exit Control List (ECL).

According to Pakistan’s family laws, minor children cannot be handed to their father, the judge observed.

The man’s lawyer argued that his client is a Muslim and he had two children from his two Christian ex-wives.

The children’s father further apprised the court that he brought the children to Pakistan with the consent of their mothers, adding that his relationship with his exwives had deteriorated due to religious beliefs as his wives used to take his children to church.

The court asked the father why he couldn’t have taken the kids to Poland to nurture his children as he had Polish citizenship.

Tough job

The father said it was very difficult for him to raise his children under Islam there as the nearest mosque was some 300 kilometres away from his house.

The court observed since he owned a large business in Poland, he could construct a mosque near his home.

On this the women’s counsel submitted it was agreed between them that they would take the kids to churches and he to mosques, and it would be left to the children themselves to decide which religion they wanted to adopt when they grew up.

After listening to the arguments, the court ordered to hand over the kids to their Polish mothers.