‘Abducted’ Christian legally wed Muslim, court rules

A PAKISTANI court has sparked outrage by ruling that a 14-year-old Christian girl was legally married to a Muslim man who allegedly abducted her at gunpoint.

In a case that has renewed focus on the persecution of Pakistan’s Christian minority, the Lahore High Court ruled on Tuesday that Maira Shahbaz had willingly converted to Islam and married Mohamad Nakash.

The girl and her family claim that she was kidnapped in April by Mr Nakash and two accomplices from near her home in the city of Faisalabad.

If the ruling is not reversed, Ms Shahbaz will have to return to Mr Nakash’s home from the shelter she was temporarily placed in.

Around 1,000 Christian and Hindu women are abducted each year in Pakistan and typically forced to convert to Islam, according to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace.

Mr Nakash, who is already married, tried to claim that Ms Shahbaz was 19 years old. This was discounted by the victim’s family who produced birth certificates and school records to show the court she was a minor. After this evidence was provided, a local court last week ruled Ms Shahbaz should be removed from Mr Nakash’s house and placed in a girls’ shelter, pending further investigation.

However, that decision was reversed on Tuesday by a court with a greater jurisdiction in Pakistan.

Khalil Tahir Sandhu, the victim’s lawyer, claimed 150 of Mr Nakash’s associates arrived at the court.

“It is unbelievable. What we have seen today is an Islamic judgment. The arguments we put forward were very strong and coherent,” Mr Sandhu told the Independent Catholic News .

“With this ruling, no Christian girl in Pakistan is safe,” echoed Lala Robin Daniel, a Pakistani Christian advocate.

Ms Shahbaz was brought to tears by the ruling, according to the ICN.

Christians constitute approximately 2 per cent of the Pakistani population but face increasing violence, discrimination and intolerance in the majority conservative Muslim nation.

Ms Shahbaz’s family members have said they will appeal the decision and take it to the highest court in Pakistan to get their daughter back.