KARACHI: The Supreme Court has disposed of a petition filed by Dua Zehra’s father against the Sindh High Court’s decision that allowed her to live with whoever she wanted.

The apex court’s Karachi Registry directed the petitioner to consult the relevant forums to put together a medical board to ascertain Dua’s age.

Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court Karachi Registry reserved its verdict on the petition.

Dua, the teenage girl, was reported missing from Karachi in mid-April and recovered from Punjab’s Bahawalnagar earlier this month.

A three-member bench of the court at Karachi registry comprising Justices Munib Akhtar, Sajjad Ali Shah and Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the case on Thursday.

The court remarked that Dua’s marriage could be challenged in a family court. However, Shah remarked that the girl married of her own free will and has rights.

The judges suggested that the parents should meet Dua for six to eight hours and inquire whether or not she was under pressure to stay in the marriage.

Dua says she got married of her own freewill and that her parents wanted to forcibly marry her off.

Courts in Lahore as well as Karachi said that she wants to live with her husband while claiming that she is an adult.

The petition filed by her father in the Supreme Court Karachi Registry stated that the Sindh High Court’s verdict allowing the teenage girl to live with whoever she wanted was based on her statement and medical test.

The ‘medical test’ conducted on the orders of the high court revealed that Dua was 17 years old. It must be added here that the medical report test is inadmissible in a trial court that requires a report submitted by a medical board.

Moreover, documents shared by the girl’s parents show that she is 14.