Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court has postponed a hearing on a Christian family’s petition to recover their daughter, after learning that a summons had not been delivered to the man accused of abducting her because his residential address was considered incomplete.
The hearing took place on 21 October in the case of Maria Shahbaz, who was 12 years old when she was allegedly abducted in July 2025, forcibly converted to Islam and made to marry Sheharyar Ahmad. The court reissued the summons to Ahmad and adjourned the proceedings, delaying the family’s efforts to bring their daughter home.
Christian rights activists criticised the police for failing to serve the notice and called for urgent action to recover Maria.
Safdar Choudhry, chairman of the Raah-e-Nijaat ministry, which is assisting Maria’s family with support from legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom International, said the family had hoped for progress after waiting more than a year.
“We were very hopeful of progress in the case in today’s hearing and were not expecting such a hasty adjournment,” he said. Choudhry questioned the explanation that Ahmad’s address was incomplete, arguing that the accused had previously appeared before the same court in response to notices.
He also criticised the police for failing to arrest Ahmad despite the restoration of the First Information Report (FIR), saying the accused continued to move freely in his neighbourhood.
Samson Salamat, chairman of Rwadari Tehreek, a movement for equality, also questioned the police explanation, saying Ahmad had reportedly lived at the same address for years.
“The police must stop creating hindrances in the recovery of Maria Shahbaz,” Salamat told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. He said the family had struggled for more than a year to recover their daughter and maintained that there was clear evidence that the marriage was invalid.
Asher Safaraz, chief executive of Christians’ True Spirit, whose organisation is among five groups seeking to join the main review petition, said the unexpected adjournment had left them disappointed. Their lawyers had also hoped to present arguments before the court.
Safaraz said the case raised wider questions about the enforcement of child marriage laws and the protection of underage girls from religious minorities. He warned that the outcome could affect other girls facing similar risks.
The proceedings concern a review petition filed by Maria’s father, Shahbaz Masih, asking the court to reconsider its 3 February judgment, which upheld a decision allowing Ahmad to retain custody of Maria on the basis of their purported marriage.
The Federal Constitutional Court admitted the review petition on 24 July and directed that notices be issued to Ahmad, the Punjab advocate general and Pakistan’s attorney general. The case was not heard again until 21 October, when a two-judge bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Karim Khan Agha considered preliminary arguments.
A court official informed the judges that the summons to Ahmad could not be served because his residential address was incomplete. The bench consequently ordered a fresh notice and postponed the hearing.
During the proceedings, Justice Agha said that, as the matter was a review petition, the family’s lawyer needed to identify an error in the original judgment.
Muhammad Saqib Jillani, who represents Maria’s family, argued that legal precedents relied upon in the court’s earlier detailed judgment had lost their authority following a landmark 2023 ruling by Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court in the Ali Azhar case. He said courts should consider child marriage cases in light of that ruling, which rejected physical puberty as the sole basis for deciding whether someone could marry under Islamic law.
Acting Chief Justice Rizvi responded that the constitutional court’s earlier judgment had concerned an appeal against a Lahore High Court decision relating to Maria’s alleged illegal confinement. He said the matter before the court was not directly about her age and suggested that questions about her age should have been raised before a family court.
The acting chief justice also noted that Maria and Ahmad had appeared before the court and that she had stated she was an adult. He questioned why her age had not been raised before the relevant legal forums earlier and referred to the timing of documents submitted to establish her date of birth. He observed that her birth certificate had been obtained 10 years after her birth, while a certificate from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had been issued eight years afterwards.
Maria’s family, however, maintains that official records and NADRA documents establish her date of birth as 7 October 2012. According to these records, she was 12 years, nine months and 20 days old when the alleged abduction and marriage took place in July 2025. Her family argues that she was legally a minor and could not independently enter into a marriage contract.
Questions have also been raised about the authenticity of the marriage documents. The investigating officer relied on Maria’s statement recorded under Section 164 of Pakistan’s Code of Criminal Procedure and a nikahnama, or Islamic marriage certificate, when recommending that the case be closed. However, the secretary of the relevant union council told a Lahore sessions court that he did not recognise the registration or authenticity of the marriage document.
On 1 October, Lahore High Court Justice Abher Gul Khan ordered the police case against Ahmad to be restored. The court accepted the family’s argument that a magistrate had approved a police report recommending the case’s cancellation on 7 March without hearing Maria’s family or their lawyer.
The family’s petition also alleged that the investigating officer had withheld important findings from a subsequent police investigation. That investigation had recommended restoring the FIR and adding charges relating to alleged forgery and fraud involving the marriage and conversion documents.
Maria’s case has attracted international attention amid wider concerns about the abduction, forced religious conversion and marriage of underage girls from religious minority communities in Pakistan.
On 9 July, the European Parliament adopted a resolution highlighting her case and urging Pakistan to establish a national mechanism to receive complaints from families whose daughters from religious minority communities had been abducted or forcibly converted.
Open Doors, a Christian support organisation, ranked Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. It cited systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labour and gender-based violence, warning that weak law enforcement and widespread impunity allowed perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to avoid accountability.
Based on reporting by Christian Daily International - Morning Star News.
