For the past few weeks, Uzma Qayyum has been shuttled from shelter to shelter by the Islamabad Sessions Court where her case has been pending. At the hearing conducted at the end of January, Judge Nazir Ahmed Gajana had ordered shifting the girl from the Darul Aman Centre where she had been ordered to go earlier in the month to the Benazir Bhutto Shelter Home and Crisis Centre.

The new shelter offered counseling services, something pertinent and necessary in Uzma’s case since her father had alleged that she had been brainwashed.

As I wrote in an earlier article entitled 'Women and militancy', Uzma Qayyum’s case began last June when one evening she did not return home from the madrassa which she attended, and which is an affiliate of Jamia Hafsa. On her bed, her parents had found a burial shroud. When the father went looking for his daughter he was told by another student at the institution that she had left with Umme-Hassan, the head of Jamia Hafsa for that institution.

Know more: Distraught man claims daughter being ‘held’ in Jamia Hafsa

When her father arrived at Jamia Hafsa, he was not allowed to meet his daughter. The next day, he returned insisting that he be allowed to see Uzma. The meeting did happen then, but only in the presence of Umme Hassan and another Jamia Hafsa administrator.

Uzma herself did not speak but her father was told that she had decided to dedicate her life to the faith. According to Uzma’s father, Maulana Abdul Aziz (the head of the adjoining Lal Masjid) also met with him and told him that Uzma would not be returned to him

Uzma’s father decided to take the issue to court filing a petition with the Supreme Court of Pakistan, asking for judicial intervention and an order requiring Jamia Hafsa to return Uzma to his custody. The Supreme Court turned over the case to the Islamabad Sessions court so that they could conduct an investigation.