The father of Dua Zahra - the teenage girl who was reported missing from Karachi in mid April and recovered from Punjab’s Bahawalnagar earlier this month - has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision of Sindh High Court allowing the girl to live with whoever she wants.

The girl 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 that she wants to live with her husband while claiming that she is an adult. Documents shared by the girl’s parent show her to be 14 years old.

The petition filed by Mehdi Kazmi, Dua’s father, in the Supreme Court Karachi Registry, states that on June 8, the Sindh High Court had allowed the girl to make the decision based on of her statement and ‘medical test’, which found her to be 17 years old.

The text of the petition states that according to Nadra records and educational credentials, Dua Zahra is 14 years old.

However, the police have submitted the challan of the case in the trial court in C class. The petitioner has also requested for an immediate hearing.

There are three classes of first information reports (FIR) - that are recorded by the polie - and challans - that are submitted by the police to the judicial magistrate: A, B, and C.

When the FIR is true but the accused persons cannot be traced, the report is classified as A-class while B class means the complaint was found to be “maliciously false”.

In C class, the FIR is disposed of as being a non-cognizable offence. It means the criminal case was filed due to a mistake of fact or the offence is of civil nature.