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Molly's mother accuses Pakistani father of assault and brainwashing
Last updated at 17:52pm on 26.09.06
Molly Campbell and her father at a press conference after her return to Pakistan
The father of schoolgirl Molly Campbell was accused in a Pakistani court yesterday of brain-washing "her innocent mind" and "cheating" British law.
And Sajad Rana is alleged to have tried to abduct his 12-year-old daughter from her Scottish island home with the help of two private detectives four months before Molly was "illegally abducted" and taken to Pakistan.
The claims are among a series of sweeping allegations against 46-year-old Mr Rana in documents submitted to the Lahore High Court by lawyers for his ex-wife, Louise Campbell, 38, in the increasingly bitter international tug-of-love over their daughter.
It is the first time that details of Ms Campbell's case have been revealed and come after an equally damning series of allegations made against her by Mr Rana.
In the documents, Ms Campbell claims that she was "terrified" of Mr Rana, who it is alleged, "had physically and emotionally abused her throughout their matrimonial life."
They claim too she "is continuously receiving threats from Mr Rana that if she comes to Pakistan he will cause harm to her."
Ms Campbell, who believes her life would be "at risk in Pakistan", says her former husband and their 18-year-old daughter Tehmina abducted Molly in August from her Scottish home on Stornoway and took her to their house in a suburb of Lahore, Pakistan's second city.
A lower Pakistani court has granted Mr Rana temporary custody while the matter is resolved but lawyers for Ms Campbell are now asking the Lahore High Court to rule that Molly, who is also known as Misbah, should be returned to her mother.
Yesterday High Court judge Mian Sajid Nisar ordered Molly's passport to be surrendered to the court so she couldn't be taken out of Pakistan until a decision on the case.
He gave Mr Rana, a British-born financier and property investor, who owns a luxury nine-bedroomed home in Lahore, three days in which to lodge his reply to Ms Campbell's petition.
Despite the accusations in the documents, Mr Rana yesterday remained confident he will ultimately be granted custody of his daughter.
"Misbah is here of her own free will and she wishes to brought up a Muslim which is impossible if she lives with her mother...God willing, the courts will rule for her and for me," Mr Rana said outside the red-brick colonial court.
Molly, who has said she would run away if returned to Scotland, repeated her pleas to her mother to drop the case.
"If she loved me she wouldn't continue to try to force me back to live with her. I don't want to go, I am happy here and I want to be raised a Muslim," she said.
But there appeared no chance of that last night and every possibility that lawyers for Mr Rana would counter with still more allegations against Ms Campbell, who they have already said is unfit to raise Molly after requiring treatment at a mental institution.
Ms Campbell is represented by Nahida Mehbooba Elahi, Pakistan's deputy Attorney General, who accuses Mr Rana of "evil designs" and say he and Tehmina "started a false vicious campaign" to assassinate her character.
In the papers, it is claimed Ms Campbell took Molly to Stornoway specifically because she feared Mr Rana was seeking to abduct her.
It claims that around April this year Mr Rana and two private detectives approached Molly as she walked to school but she didn't get in their car and told her mother.
"It was abundantly clear that he had come to abduct Misbah," the documents said, claiming she was afraid of her father.
The court was told that Mr Rana and Tehmina had planned to "flout" the decision of the Scottish courts to grant Ms Campbell custody and illegally abducted Molly.
Of Mr Rana it says he "is aggressive, violent and short tempered. He has a long history of assaulting the petitioner. He is capable of taking the law into his own hands and would adopt any mode to distort facts and remove a minor from one place to the other, not because he loves the minor but to show his influence and strength."
It continues : "That minor is illegally and improperly confined and being harassed and her innocent mind being brain-washed against her mother."
Mr Rana, it goes-on,"has cheated law enforcement agencies in Scotland, flouted/violated a lawful order passed by a court of competent jurisdiction in Scotland and have brought the minor to Pakistan in clear violation of the law of this land, law of Scotland, judicial protocol and internationally accepted standards."
Lawyers for Ms Campbell say that under a protocol between Britain and Pakistan "the welfare of the child is best determined by the courts of the country of the child's habitual residence" and Molly should therefore be automatically be returned to UK.
The judge will hear further arguments at the High Court on October 9, after a Guardian court is expected this Saturday to extend the temporary custody given to Mr Rana.
Reader views (4)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Who really cares, certainly not me, if she chooses to live outside the UK then it should be encouraged.
- Freddy, Manchester
We, the public, aren't up to speed on the personal motives of Mrs Campbell, Molly Campbell or her father and siblings in Pakistan, but reading the body-language of Molly, and carefully noting her rather smug countenance when talking in rather cruel and patronising tones about her obviously distraught mother, I personally believe that Mrs Campbell, despite the tangled legalities of this family tragedy, would be wise to let matters rest upon the current status quo and let her daughter remain in Pakistan.
- Ted Knight, Shetland
I fear this could be a worrying precedent. The child's 'statemen't cannot be taken seriously, as she is just a child.
What floodgates of 'abductions' will open after this case is over? We must do the right thing and return her to her mother.
- Paul Jardine, Bromley, Kent
It seems very sad that this family has broken down to such an extent. As I understand it, Misbah wants to be with her father and her siblings in Pakistan rather than being isolated on a remote Scottish Island with only her mother and her mother's partner. Seems reasonable to me - particularly as she will still be able to see her mother. You have to question the mother's motives in going against Misbah's wishes like this - is it really about what's best for Misbah, or is it about getting one over on her ex? And who started the 'forced marriage' rumours eh?
- Katherine, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear
