Sindh police asks court to quash Dua Zehra kidnapping case.

The Sindh police on Thursday recommended a local court that the case lodged by the parents of Dua Zehra - who went missing from Karachi and was recovered in Punjab - be quashed, observing that charges of her kidnapping and underage marriage were not proven.

On June 7, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had allowed Zehra to decide whom she was intending to reside or go along with after she denied on oath being kidnapped by her purported husband Zaheer Ahmed.

Police had booked Ahmed, cleric Hafiz Ghulam Mustafa, who had allegedly solemnised their underage marriage, and Ali Asghar, a witness to the marriage. A case was lodged under Sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of fourteen), 216 (harboring offenders) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with the Section 3(i) of the Prevention of Trafficking in Person, 2018 read with sections of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013 at the Al Falah police station on the complaint of the girl's father, Syed Mehdi Ali Kazmi.

On Thursday, Judicial Magistrate (East) Aftab Ahmed Bughio fixed the matter on June 20 for hearing arguments from the parties on the challan filed under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Earlier, DSP Shaukat Ali Shahani, the investigating officer, filed a final challan stating that during the course of the investigation it was found that Zehra went from Karachi to Punjab of her own free will and was not abducted.

He said that the medico-legal officer's test certificate suggested Zehra's age to...