TABASSUM YOUSAF is the lawyer representing the
parents of the young Catholic girl, Huma Younus, now aged 15, who was
abducted in October 2019 and forced to convert to Islam. Speaking with
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), she gave a dramatic
update on the personal and legal situation of this adolescent girl, who
was also forced to marry her captor.
Ms. Yousaf reported: “Huma has telephoned her
parents, telling them that she has now become pregnant as a result of
the sexual violence she has been subjected to. Asked by her father if
she could leave her abductor’s house and return to
her parents’ home, she told him that she is not allowed to leave the
house and that her life has become still more difficult, since she is
now imprisoned within the walls of one room.”
The girl’s Muslim abductor, Abdul Jabbar, has a
brother by the name of Mukhtiar who is a member of the Rangers, a branch
of the security forces. “This man, said Ms. Yousaf, “has contacted
Huma’s parents via video telephone calls and threatened
them directly, showing them his weapons and telling them he would kill
them if ever they should come looking for their daughter. This same man,
Mukhtiar, has added in audio messages that even if all the Christians
should band together to bring Huma back, he
would kill both her parents and anyone who tried to help them.”
On the legal front, Huma’s family lawyer explained
that the court of first instance, the Third Judicial Magistrate for
Karachi East, had closed the case on the grounds of lack of proof. An
appeal has been launched to the same judge to re-examine
the documentary proof, and the magistrate thereupon contacted the
official public records authority, NADRA, in order to obtain the girl’s
birth certificate. The next hearing has been set for July 13, 2020.
The lawyer had already presented two official
documents in the course of one of the earlier hearings which prove that
she is under age; a sworn statement by her school and her baptismal
certificate from her Catholic parish of Saint James
in Karachi both clearly state Huma’s date of birth as May 22, 2005.
Thus she is 15 and below the marriageable age of 18. This fact renders
her marriage to her abductor invalid.
As for the High Court of Sindh province, it is
still closed on account of the coronavirus pandemic and will probably
not open again until August. Only after this will it be possible to set a
date for a hearing before this court.
The lawyer representing Huma’s abductor is doing
what he can to gain time, Ms. Yousaf reported, because in three years’
time the girl will be 18 and it is highly likely that the case will then
be shelved indefinitely. In theory, the Pakistani
Supreme Court, which earlier acquitted Asia Bibi, could examine and
rule on this case very rapidly.
Ms. Yousaf said that Islamic radicals in Pakistan
prevent the judicial system from having full autonomy. She added that,
moreover, when it is a matter of the rights of the religious minorities,
there are often long delays, since these cases
are considered neither urgent, nor a priority.
With regard to the prevalence of the kind of
phenomenon, the ordeal of Huma Younus is all too common. Ms. Yousaf,
citing research, stated that, “according to my reading, and based on
experience, there are around 2,000 such cases per year,
whether reported or not.”
She continued: “Justice delayed is justice denied,
hence every delay in reaching judgment on the rights of religious
minorities represents a denial of these rights. The court has delayed
and continues to delay justice on behalf of Huma,
solely because she is an underage Christian girl.”
“If a similar case were to happen involving an
underage Muslim girl, authorities would act immediately. As a lawyer, I
am certain that the president of the Pakistani Supreme Court could grant
justice to the parents of the girl and to Huma
herself. However, at every other lower level of the judicial system
justice for minorities will not be possible.”
—Massimiliano Tubani
With picture of Human Younas (Facebook)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the Holy
Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they
are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic
charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by
Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An
Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over
145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes
thousands of projects every year including providing transport for
clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding
for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians.
Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in
Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org
or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need,
725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.
www.churchinneed.org
