A 12-year-old girl taken from Scotland to Pakistan allegedly against her will has said she chose to return to be with her father in the South Asian nation, where the father plans to seek legal custody.
Molly Campbell arrived in the eastern city of Lahore from Glasgow with her Pakistani father and elder sister on Aug. 25, a day after her mother reported her missing and accused her ex-husband of abducting the girl from their remote Scottish island home.
"Yeah, it was my own choice, I really like it here," the smiling pigtailed girl, also known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, said from her father's Lahore home on Friday.
"I am with my dad, I haven't seen him for a year and a half. I am living with him. My mum didn't let me see my dad," she added. "I am enjoying it."
Her mother, Louise Campbell, is the child's legal guardian after obtaining legal custody in court last year, Scottish police said.
But the girl's father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, planned to apply for guardianship yesterday, said the man's lawyer, Mohammed Basit.
"We are preparing a legal guardian law suit for her father," Basit said. "We will proceed for interim custody and then for guardianship."
Scottish police, who have said the case could be a violation of the Child Abduction Act, said they have completed their investigation and filed a report to prosecutors, who will determine whether to take further action.
Mohammed Sarwar, a British lawmaker from Glasgow of Pakistani descent, arrived in Lahore on Friday and met the girl and her family after her mother's pleas for her daughter to be returned.
"The girl has told me that she has traveled to Pakistan under her own free will and nobody has forced her," Sarwar said. "She said she wants to live in Pakistan."
But Sarwar added that the father "has probably broken the law" by taking his daughter from her mother.
British and Pakistani judiciary officials signed a 2003 protocol to return abducted children to the country where they normally lived and where a court can decide which parent the child should live with.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said British authorities had not yet contacted Pakistani officials for assistance.
"To investigate this case we would require some kind of approach by the British government and if they do of course are people will investigate," ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
Scottish police said the girl was last seen at her school in Stornoway, the principal town on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides Islands, on Aug. 25.
The girl's father visited Stornoway on Aug. 24 and departed later for Glasgow. The following day, the girl was met at her school by her elder sister, Tahmina, and they flew from Stornoway to Glasgow before boarding a flight to Lahore.
Sarwar said the girl's father offered to let his daughter return to Scotland with the lawmaker.
"The girl said she didn't want to leave here," Sarwar said, adding that the father would let his daughter call her mother daily.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese