LAHORE, Nov 29: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered that Misbah Iram Rana, a 12-year-old British-Pakistani national, must return to her mother and said that the British High Commission should make arrangements for her travel to Scotland.

The schoolgirl, whose Christian name was Molly Campbell, sparked an international custody fight after she fled her mother's home at Stornoway in Scotland�s remote Western Isles in August to be with her father in Pakistan.

(According to a report AFP news agency filed from London, the girl`s mother said she was astonished to hear the court decision. I was speechless. I could not believe it, she said. �It took some time to acknowledge that the judge actually said what he did.

Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in a short order directed the girl`s father Sajjad Ahmad Rana to hand over the girl and her British and Pakistani passports to a senior woman official of the high commission within seven days so that she could be sent to her mother Louise Anne Fairely.

Accepting the habeas corpus petition filed by Ms Fairely, the court observed that Mr Rana had violated the orders of a sessions court of Scotland by bringing his daughter to Pakistan clandestinely after he had said before the jurisdiction of that court in an undertaking that he would not remove the girl away from the custody of her mother.

In the petition, Ms Fairely said that Mr Rana had abducted Molly in a deceitful manner and that she was being kept by her former husband in illegal custody. She requested the court to recover her daughter and issue directions to the government to repatriate her to her own habitual residence in Scotland.

Justice Nisar said that when he had a chat with Misbah she had no perception about halal and haram and could not distinguish between the two. She also did not know how to offer prayers according to Islamic injunctions.

The LHC held that Mr Rana had admitted before the Scottish courts that Misbah was the habitual resident of Scotland and it established that the Scottish court could competently decide the custody dispute.

The order said that courts in Scotland had already passed two orders and her father surrendered to the jurisdiction of courts there by undertaking that he would not remove the child from the custody of her mother. But he brought her to Pakistan without approaching the competent court and violated the orders of Scottish courts. This removal is flagrantly illegal, deceitful and a dishonest act, the court observed.

The court held that Mr Rana had not been an upright, fair and honest man in this

case and was guilty of showing disrespect to the court's orders, which was tantamount to fraud. And thus he could not be allowed to have the premium of such fraud.

The court also held that the minor had expressed her views through the media and before the court that she did not want to go back to Scotland and live with her mother, rather she would stay with her father in Pakistan. But the reasons given by her that she was being prevented by the petitioner from leading her life according to the Islamic virtues seem to be tutored. At present, she was under the influence of her father and elder sister and thus her opinion could not be given much importance.

Witnesses said the girl burst into tears and several of her relatives wept when they heard that the court had upheld an appeal by her mother.

Mr Rana said that outside the court building that he and his daughter were devastated and vowed to appeal.

I don't want to comment on the court verdict but I feel devastated by the judgment. I will go to appeal in the Supreme Court within seven days,� Mr Rana told reporters.

Lahore News

MOLLY Campbell has fallen ill with "exhaustion" in the wake of the dramatic tug-of-love case which has seen her ordered to be returned to Scotland.

The 12-year-old, who is also known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, was taken to a doctor in the Pakistani city of Lahore late on Friday night after complaining of extreme tiredness. She was yesterday recovering at her father's home.

Yesterday morning, lawyers acting for her father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, filed an appeal against last week's ruling which ordered her to be returned to Scotland pending a custody hearing at the Court of Session.

Molly has insisted that she came to Pakistan of her own free will in order to be with her father, brother and sister rather than with her mother who lives in Tong village near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

The schoolgirl became the focus of an international hunt after she fled the Western Isles in August to go to Pakistan. It was initially claimed that she had been abducted for a forced marriage but she then publicly announced that she had planned the trip herself and left of her own accord.

The latest twist in the case saw Molly taken to see a doctor late on Friday.

Her father said: "She looked and sounded very unwell and was complaining about being tired. She was pale and listless and off her food and couldn't keep her eyes open. We went to a doctor and he gave her a prescription and ordered to get as much sleep as possible. She is back here now. I think it's the strain of everything that's happened. We are still shocked by the verdict from the court and she is very distraught."

He added that he and Molly were preparing contingency plans for where she could stay in Scotland if their appeal is rejected and she must be returned to the UK. The schoolgirl has repeatedly said that she is unwilling to go back to the home her mother, Louise Campbell, shares with her new partner.

Sajad Rana said: "If she has to go back to Scotland then we are looking at a couple of places where she could stay in Glasgow. She doesn't want to stay with her mother. She has a couple of aunties in Glasgow and her brother Omar, who is here right now, has a flat there."

Yesterday Dr Abdul Basit, a lawyer for Rana, said he had filed an appeal against the court ruling.

It was not immediately clear when the appeal would be heard, although courts usually hear such appeals quickly.

Rana said his daughter has the right decide for herself where to live: "We expect the courts to give justice to us in the name of Islam and in the name of Pakistan."

Molly has said that she prefers to live in Pakistan with her family and that she left her mother because she was living with another man. "I have nobody related to me in Scotland, and my mother is living with a stranger - a stranger who is nobody to me," she said. "I do not want to be in that hell again. I want to live with my father."

Last Wednesday, a judge at the Lahore High Court, Saquib Nisar, ruled that Molly must be handed over to the British authorities within a week so that she could be taken to Scotland.

Louise Campbell has said she was awarded custody of her daughter in 2005, and that her daughter was taken illegally from Scotland.

Molly's parents were married in a Muslim ceremony in Glasgow in 1984, and had two sons and two daughters.

After the marriage broke down, the children lived with their father and moved to Pakistan.

All the children later returned to Britain to live with their mother but are now back in Pakistan.

A court in Pakistan has ordered that Molly should remain in the country until the Appeal Court hearing in January.

Anybody see any update on this story ???