A famous Pakistani stuntman, Sultan Mohammad Golden, is in the middle of a legal battle in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after he allegedly married a minor girl who is around 12 years old as per her school records. However, her father and he claim that she is above 18 years of age.
The 60-year-old had gotten famous after setting a world record of jumping over 22 cars in 1987.
Local media reported that official sources and documents revealed that father of the girl, Samreen Sahar, had concealed her school certificate and vaccination card and obtained a birth certificate from the Sheshi Koh village council recording her age as above 18 years. On the basis of that certificate, her Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) was secured from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
As per news reports, district administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chitral district, intervened after which the controversial birth certificate was amended and the concerned marriage registrar also cancelled the marriage contract.
The administration also reportedly requested NADRA in September to proceed against the suspects, including Golden and Sahar’s father, Azizur Rehman, under the NADRA 2000 Ordinance for fraudulently obtaining a CNIC and concealing the age of the child as per her school record.
Commenting on the issue, tweep @BenazirMirSamad wrote: “Many such cases. These rich old men from down the country have been preying on poor Chitrali families for so long now. Family so poor that the father is willing to testify her daughter is 18 when her school record shows she is only 12 years old.”
Marriage took place in July
Official sources told local media the controversial nikah (marriage) of Golden with the minor girl had taken place in July after which the issue was raised with the administration by a local civil society organisation.
The case will be presented in a local court in Chitral on October 24.
Lower Chitral District’s deputy commissioner had also constituted a medical board, which was notified by the medical superintendent of the DHQ hospital in the locality.
The letter of the medical board was conveyed to the local police asking them to produce the girl on September 18 to confirm her age.
However, her father failed to bring her in as she was taken out of the district allegedly by Golden.
After their failure to produce the girl before the medical board, the executive magistrate, issued arrest warrants, which were challenged before the court by the suspects.
The court suspended the said arrest warrants and finalised the date of the hearing.
Suspects challenge accusations
Reportedly, another petition of the accused has been pending before the court of the civil judge, in the town of Drosh in Chiltral, wherein they had challenged an ongoing inquiry by an additional assistant commissioner investigating the same issue.
The suspects have contended before the court that the girl is 18 years old, which is evident from her CNIC.
However, the school record of Government Primary School in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, states her date of birth as April 10, 2008, while her vaccination card also shows the same age, as per local media reports.
After the district administration took notice of the issue, as marrying a child is a crime under the Child Marriage Restraint Act in Pakistan, the additional assistant commissioner (AAC) was assigned the task to investigate the matter.
