The Islamabad High Court ordered on Saturday the interior secretary to form a joint investigation team while hearing a Polish mother’s plea seeking custody of her daughter in Pakistan.

The committee will comprise officials from the Intelligence Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency, and the National Database & Registration Authority. The court instructed the JIT to seek assistance from the Home Department and the Inspector General of Sindh in tracing the child and her father.

The court issued a notice on the petition and ordered the names of the father, Adil Khan, and the daughter, Anita Mariam Khan, to be included on the exit control list and blacklisted.

IHC judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani heard the petition of Polish citizen Anna Monika, who claimed that during her hospitalisation, her Pakistani husband took their Polish national daughter, Anita Mariam Khan, to Pakistan in January 2022.

The district court in Poland had previously rejected her husband Adil’s request for custody of their daughter, she claimed in her petition.

While the case was still pending in another Polish court, the husband allegedly brought their daughter to Pakistan with malicious intent. A Polish court ordered in November 2022 that the daughter be returned from Pakistan to Poland within six months.

After listening to the arguments, the IHC ordered the formation of a JIT and stated that until the JIT is notified, details should be provided to the FIA’s Human Trafficking Unit director general in Karachi.

The DG has been instructed to make “serious efforts” to trace the minor child and her father. The Sindh home secretary of Sindh and the inspector general of Sindh Police have also been directed to cooperate in locating Adil Khan and his daughter. The court noted in its order that the petitioner had separately submitted a request providing her husband’s passport number.

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NADRA officials are to retrieve information on Adil’s family tree and other details from their database to determine his location. The JIT is also tasked with obtaining information about mobile SIMs registered under Adil’s identity card numbers.

According to FIA officials, Adil Khan last landed at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on December 18, 2024, indicating that he was still present in Pakistan.

The court emphasised the necessity of taking effective measures to ensure the child’s safety. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for January 21, 2025. The IHC had previously awarded custody of two children to two Polish mothers in 2022.