A family court in Karachi has awarded six-month prison sentence to two persons after they were found guilty of wilfully violating judicial orders in a sensitive child custody dispute.
The court ruled that a woman, Ameer Zadi, and her son Salman Shah unlawfully relocated her minor granddaughter, Kashaf Fatima, to Rawalpindi and repeatedly obstructed court-ordered meetings between the child and her mother, Farzana Shah. The contempt proceedings followed persistent non-compliance with judicial directions, culminating in the court’s decision to impose custodial punishment.
The judge instructed the Sindh inspector general of police to ensure immediate arrest and incarceration of both the convicts, and recovery of Kashaf before the family court. The family dispute began after the death of the minor girl’s father Parsan Shah who was found dead at his Hyderabad residence on November 8, 2022.
The death resulted in dispute between Parsan’s wife and mother. Parsan’s family accused Farzana and her family members of involvement in Parsan’s death. After obtaining pre-arrest bail, Farzana approached the family court in Karachi for the custody of her daughter Kashaf. Court ordered meeting of Kashaf with her mother but the other party allegedly moved the child to Islamabad.
The Karachi court took a stern view of these actions, noting that the relocation was done without lawful authority and with deliberate intent to frustrate judicial process. The sentence handed down on Monday is one of the rare instances where a family court resorted to penal action to enforce its directives.
Published in News Daily on 22-July-2025.
