The Punjab Police continued to search for tortured maid Tayyaba and her father who vanished into thin air after the case was highlighted in the mainstream and social media.
During a raid in Faisalabad on Saturday, the police detained Tayyaba’s paternal aunt Pathani Bibi. The police sprung in action after the Chief Justice of Pakistan, while hearing a suo moto case over alleged torture on the child maid on Friday, demanded that Tayyaba to be produced in the next hearing. The ten-year-old girl was recovered by the police from Additional Sessions Judge Raja Khurram’s house in Islamabad last week. The apex court ordered the DIG Operations Islamabad to form and head an investigative committee to probe the case. Expressing trust in the police, the court ordered them to bring the truth to light. The apex court also ordered the police to find and bring the child into court next week alongside her parents and the assistant commissioner of Potohar. The investigative team has been instructed to conclude its probe within two weeks. The judge’s wife, Maheen Zafar, has also been given time to submit her reply to court. The hearing has been adjourned until Jan 11.
Neighbours complained that they used to hear the little girl shriek and wail every other day as the owners of the house beat her up. Tayyaba’s pictures with bruises and wounds made rounds on social media prompting action by the state.
In her statement to the magistrate, Tayyaba said that she was beaten up by judge’s wife for losing a broom. She added that she often survived on only one meal a day and slept in a storeroom. In a move which shocked many, the matter was settled down out of the court. This action compelled Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar to take suo moto notice of the case. He summoned Tayyaba’s parents along with police officials at the first hearing of the case on Friday (January 6). However, till Friday, Tayyaba and her father went missing, a mobile phone which he was using has been switched off. Meanwhile, two different women are claiming to be Tayyaba’s mothers. Their DNA samples have been taken by the PIMS hospital and results will take a week to arrive. But for the samples to match, it is important to recover Tayyaba first.