During the hearing of the case, the father and mother of the slain girl recorded a statement before trial court judge Imran Shafi. The duo being legal heirs claimed in the statement that they decided to forgive the suspects out of their free will only for the sake of God, reported Dawn.
The judge made the statement part of the record and reserved decision in the case.
In Jan this year, Sana, who was employed by Dr Humera and her husband Junaid, was allegedly tortured to death by the couple.
The 15-year-old maid was a resident of Hajra Shah Muqim Depalpur and worked in Pak View Villas Z Block. The girl's father, Jamshed Ali, had said that his daughter was hired for domestic work at Rs10,000 per month by the couple two months ago.
Subsequently, Chung police booked the couple on the complaint of the father, who accused the couple of murdering her daughter. The girl had suffered injuries on various parts of her body, including her face and head.
Violence against children
Violence against child domestic workers continues in Pakistan despite legislation by the federal and provincial governments in this regard. Due to poor implementation of the laws, people continue to employ minors who ought to be in schools as house help, while the state acts as a silent spectator.
In Feb 2020, Lahore police arrested a woman for physically abusing her domestic help in C Block of the Defence Housing Society. According to a national daily, the woman beat up the 14-year-old kid, cut off her hair, and then left her on the street.
In another incident reported by Guardian in Aug 2019, Bano, a 13-year-old girl working in Bahria Town in Rahim Yar Khan, was thrown out of a window by her employer and her backbone was irreparably damaged, leading to her death six months later. Her father settled with the family for money instead of taking them to court.
In Jan 2019, 16-year-old maid Uzma Bibi was allegedly tortured and murdered by her employer in Lahore for helping herself to a small piece of meat. Police said Uzma died after blows to the head with a kitchen utensil. She had been working for the family in Lahore for eight months when she was killed.
In 2017, an Islamabad judge and his wife were arrested and later sentenced to three years for torturing a minor domestic worker, Tayyaba. The picture of the child, with her face bruised and eye swollen, that went viral on mainstream and social media had forced the country to soul search. However, some years on, the judge and his wife got their sentences reduced to a single year in Jan 2020 and are soon to walk free.