KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has declared Nimra Kazmi, a teenage girl who had entered into a free-will marriage, old enough to enter into a marriage and asked the trial court to issue the final verdict in the case.

A two member-bench headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro that included Justice Agha Faisal heard the case for Nimra and Dua Zehra’s recovery.

Nimra’s age is between 17 to 18 years, according to the medical report submitted in court.

Nimra was sent to a shelter home in Karachi till the determination of her age on the court’s order. The court had ordered a medical test of the girl, believed to be 16, on Monday. She was reported missing from Karachi in April and resurfaced in Dera Ghazi Khan.

The petitioner’s lawyer said a first information report filed against kidnapping of Nimra had been quashed after the medical report of the teen confirmed that she was an adult.

The court allowed Nimra to meet her husband and parents. It ordered that Nirma be kept at the shelter home till a decision by the trial court about whether she wants to live with her husband or parents.

Nimra told the court that she left her home of her own free will and reached Punjab on her own. She said provincial minister and Pakistan People’s Party leader Shehla Raza visited the shelter house to meet her.

At this the petitioner’s lawyer argued that the intervention of politicians was detrimental to the case. He requested the court to stop Raza from meeting Nimra.

In an earlier hearing of the case, Justice Kalhoro had expressed ire over the failure of the police to recover Dua Zehra from Punjab and ordered the government to take back the charge from Inspector General Kamran Fazal and replace him with a “capable officer”.

Dua Zehra is another teen who went missing from Karachi and resurfaced in Punjab where she also entered into a free-will marriage.