Asma’s voice
If Asma Jehangir had been amongst us today she would have lauded the decision of an Islamabad court that repatriated a minor Christian girl to her family, by rejecting the claims of the girl’s abductor and rapist that she was an adult and had converted to Islam and married him of her own free will.
When Elisha (13) disappeared, her father got a letter stating that his daughter had converted and married one Qadeer Ismail. The father filed a complaint at the local police station near Islamabad, and was bizarrely arrested when Qadeer filed a counter-complaint of felony. The police found nothing against the father and let him go. He then went to court and produced Elisha’s NIC which proved that she was born in 2005. The evidence against the abductor/rapist became overwhelming when a terrified Elisha was brought to a witness stand, visibly weeping and stammering and during a cross examination, unable to name any prophet accept Jesus. The court was not convinced that she was a true convert; it was also convinced that she was a minor. When the judge ruled that Elisha be returned to her parents, she was visibly overjoyed and ran towards them.
Since 2014, it has been estimated that 700 Christian girls have been kidnapped, raped and forced into marriages not of their choice. This must stop.
Superstitions galore
It seems that The Great Khan is besieged by superstitions, convinced that if he does this or that on any given day or occasion that it will bode well or ill, depending on what his Peerni advises. It’s well known that his sons were dismayed at the way he solemnised his second and third marriages. He was therefore keen to go to England to make up with them and convince them of the rightness of his decisions. But he was advised, by his Peerni no doubt, that travelling across the “Black Waters” for the foreseeable future would be a bad omen for him, and his quest for Takht-e-Islamabad. So, the trip was postponed.