Islamabad, Sep 1 (IANS) Christian rights advocates have criticised a Pakistan court for granting custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a man accused of kidnapping, forcibly converting and getting married to her. Rights advocates said that the court’s decision could expose the girl, identified as Amber Nadeem, to further abuse and coercion and urged authorities to protect the child.
Speaking to reporters, Minorities Alliance Pakistan Chairman Advocate Akmal Bhatti, Voice of Justice Chairman Joseph Janssen, Advocate Haroon Michael, Sadaf Adnan and Amber Nadeem’s mother, Nadia Nadeem, raised questions over the decision announced by an additional district and sessions judge in Faisalabad despite discrepancies over the girl’s age and circumstances regarding her alleged conversion and marriage, a report in ‘Christian Daily International-Morning Star News’ detailed.
Janssen said Amber Nadeem was allegedly kidnapped by Mohsin Liaqat on June 12. After the family lodged a police report, authorities found the girl and placed her in protective custody at a Gender-Based Violence Unit while Liaqat was arrested.
During initial proceedings before a judicial magistrate on June 27, Amber allegedly said that Liaqat’s family pressurised her to say that she was an adult. Subsequently, the defence presented documents of her conversion and marriage certificate stating that Amber was 18 years old.
Her family and lawyers had raised questions over the documents and mentioned that Amber’s parents got married in 2012. The magistrate ordered a medical examination to determine her actual age and placed the girl in government shelter.
According to Janssen, the age examination was not produced before the magistrate and Judge Rana Sohail granted custody of Amber Nadeem to Liaqat and even approved his bail, the report in Christian Daily International-Morning Star News mentioned. Janssen said that judge also accepted a new affidavit in which Amber stated that she had converted to Islam and married Liaqat as per her own choice and she was not kidnapped.
In July, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Pakistani authorities to end the abduction and forced conversion to Islam of girls belonging to religious minority communities. Citing United Nations data for 2025, the resolution stated that Christian girls account for nearly 25 per cent of cases involving forced religious conversion through marriage.
In the resolution, Members of the European Parliament urged Pakistan to establish a comprehensive national framework to eliminate child marriage and “create a national mechanism for handling complaints from families of abducted or forcibly converted girls from minorities,” a report published in The Christian Post stated.
To underline its concerns, the European Parliament highlighted the case of 13-year-old Christian girl Maria Shahbaz. According to the resolution, Maria was allegedly abducted in July 2025 by 30-year-old Shehryar Ahmad, who is accused of forcing her to convert to Islam and marry him.
The lawmakers also referred to the legal proceedings surrounding the case, noting that despite allegations that official documents had been falsified and evidence indicating that the girl was underage, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the accused and returned the child to him. The resolution strongly criticised the court’s decision and called for Maria Shahbaz to be provided with legal assistance as well as psychological support to help her recover from the ordeal.
–IANS
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