JHELUM: A man riddled with unemployed and debt ‘sold’ his newborn son for Rs 5,000, his wife alleged on Wednesday.
In a complaint made to the Jhelum District Police Officer (DPO) on Wednesday, the woman, Sana Zubair lamented that her health had drastically deteriorated after giving birth to a boy at a local hospital in Jhelum, following which she was referred to a hospital in Rawalpindi.
She stated that once she was discharged and returned home, the baby was nowhere to be found. Her husband, Zubair Akhtar, told her that he had handed over the infant to his sister’s landlord in exchange for Rs 5,000 and refused to bring the child back.
She further stated that he left the house quarrelling on her pleas and persistence to bring the child back.
The DPO directed the Civil Line police station’s station house officer (SHO) to take immediate action and recover the child.
Cases of jobless, debt-ridden and poverty-stricken parents ‘selling’ their children for money is not a surprise or new story in Pakistan. The country officially reports its unemployment rate to be around six per cent, however, in November 2017 a private research firm made proper studies and reported that as much as 49 per cent employable people do not have jobs in Pakistan.
