The Lahore High Court has ordered the restoration of a police case involving a Christian girl whose family says she was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and made to marry a Muslim man.
Justice Abher Gul Khan admitted a petition filed by the family of Maria Shahbaz on 1 October, seeking the restoration of the First Information Report (FIR) against Shehryar Ahmad, according to Safdar Choudhry, chairman of Raah-e-Nijaat Ministry, which is supporting the family.
The development gives Maria’s family another legal route as it seeks a review of an earlier ruling by Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), which placed Maria in Ahmad’s custody and treated her marriage and conversion as voluntary.
Choudhry said a Lahore magistrate had accepted a police request to cancel the FIR on 7 March without the presence of Maria’s family or their lawyer. He alleged that the investigating officer had failed to present important findings from a later police investigation, which resulted in the FIR being restored and additional allegations of fraud and forgery being added.
According to Choudhry, the authenticity of Maria’s marriage document had already been questioned before a sessions court. The secretary of the relevant union council reportedly testified that neither the Nikahnama, the Islamic marriage certificate, nor the alleged marriage had been registered with the authority. He said the document was therefore false.
Maria’s family subsequently approached the police chief, who appointed a new investigation team led by a deputy superintendent of police. Choudhry said the investigation concluded that the FIR should be restored and that further charges relating to alleged fraud and forgery should be included.
The family then challenged the earlier cancellation of the FIR before the Lahore High Court. Choudhry said the latest ruling would allow them to pursue criminal proceedings based on the findings of the reinvestigation and strengthen their request for the FCC to review its earlier judgment.
The family's lawyer before the FCC, Supreme Court Advocate Muhammad Saqib Jillani, also welcomed the Lahore High Court decision and said it could provide another basis for the constitutional court to reconsider its earlier ruling.
On 24 July, a two-member FCC bench comprising Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Aamer Farooq admitted the family's review petition for hearing. Jillani argued that the FCC's February ruling had relied on legal precedents that had subsequently been affected by a decision of the Federal Shariat Court in the case of Ali Azhar v. Province of Sindh.
Jillani argued that the Federal Shariat Court had stated that Islamic law requires both physical puberty and mental maturity for marriage. He further argued that Pakistani law and Islamic jurisprudence do not allow minors to enter legally binding contracts independently.
The lawyer also challenged the importance attached to statements Maria made in court about her age and marriage, arguing that she was a minor when those statements were recorded.
After the July hearing, the FCC issued notices to the attorney general for Pakistan, the advocate general of Punjab and Ahmad. A date for the next hearing had not been announced.
Two further review petitions challenging the FCC's 3 February judgment have also been filed by the Legal Aid Society in Karachi and Christians’ True Spirit (CTS), an advocacy organisation based in Lahore. The petitions are expected to be considered alongside the application filed by Maria’s father, Shahbaz Masih.
Maria disappeared from her home on 29 July 2025. Her family alleges that Ahmad abducted her, forced her to convert to Islam and compelled her to marry him. Two days later, she appeared before a magistrate and said she was an adult, had converted to Islam and had married Ahmad willingly.
Her family disputed that account and presented official birth records showing her date of birth as 7 October 2012. The alleged marriage document later became a central issue, with the union council secretary reportedly stating that it had not been registered or issued by the competent authority.
Choudhry said a subsequent police investigation found that Maria was 12 years, nine months and 20 days old when she disappeared. The investigation reportedly concluded that the marriage certificate was forged and that the alleged conversion certificate could not be verified.
Despite those findings, the FCC ruled on 3 February that Maria should remain in Ahmad’s custody. The court treated her as someone who had voluntarily converted to Islam and married Ahmad, and held that even where a marriage involves a minor, laws criminalising child marriage do not necessarily make the marriage itself void or voidable.
Maria’s case has attracted international attention amid broader concerns about allegations of underage girls from religious minority communities being abducted, converted and married in Pakistan. On 9 July, the European Parliament adopted a resolution referring to Maria’s case and calling for a national mechanism to receive complaints from families of girls from religious minorities who are allegedly abducted or forcibly converted.
Based on reporting by Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
