Pakistani court takes petition of Indian woman seeking custody of her children from husband

Lahore: A Pakistani court on Friday took up the petition of an Indian Muslim woman seeking custody of her two minor sons after her husband reportedly "illegally" transported them to a Gulf country.

Petitioner Farzana Begum, 45, told the Lahore High Court that she did not want to go back to India without her sons.

Farzana told the court that she contracted marriage with Mirza Yousaf Elahi of Lahore in 2015 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

From the wedlock, the couple had two sons -- Ibrahim and Ismail. Her family in 2018 moved to Lahore where her husband arranged a separate residence for her.

After reaching Pakistan, the petitioner came to know that she was the fourth wife of her husband, who runs a business in the Gulf.

Farzana told the court her husband tortured and expelled her from the house and also took custody of her minor children.

A government law officer told the Lahore High Court that the respondent had taken the minors to the UAE.

“LHC Justice Amjad Rafiq asked the petitioner’s counsel Bushra Qamar to assist the court as to how the minors could be brought back to Pakistan from the UAE. The counsel said she will present multiple judgements and the laws empowering the court to get the abducted minors extradited,” a court official told PTI after the hearing.

The judge then adjourned the hearing till next week.

Earlier, Punjab police had booked Elahi for allegedly torturing Farzana in Lahore.

"We have registered an FIR against Mirza Yousuf Elahi on the complaint of his Indian wife Farzana Begum for allegedly torturing her, seizing her passport, hurling threats and illegal confinement," police officer Muhammad Abbas of the Factory Area police station at Shiekhupura Road, Lahore, told PTI.

However, the suspect was not arrested and managed to flee the country.

Hailing from Cheeta Camp in Mumbai, Farzana moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE, in 2006 for a job at a salon. She was earning 5,000 dirhams per month.

“In 2015, I met Mirza Yousuf Elahi during a get-together with her friends. The same year, we decided to marry,” Farzana told PTI, adding that both were divorcees.

Farzana had a son and a daughter from her first marriage while Elahi had six children from his first two wives and this was his fourth marriage.

For the first three years of their marriage, they stayed in the UAE and had two children. In late 2018, the couple moved to Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Our quarrels started when my husband bought a big house and a commercial plaza in the name of my children in Rehman Gardens Lahore as his daughters from his first wife were against this," Farzana said, subsequently adding that Elahi then started torturing her and asked her to go back to her own country, India.

"Elahi even told local police that I was staying here illegally. After that, a couple of policemen along with two others came to my house and took me forcibly to Wagah Border to deport me. I protested and told the authorities at Wagah that my two children were there and my husband wanted to get rid of me. On the intervention of some senior official there, I was allowed to go home," she said.

Farzana insisted she would not go back to India without her children.