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LAHORE - The 12-year-old schoolgirl who sparked an international manhunt and a legal battle after she ran away from home in Scotland to live with her father in Pakistan has been ordered to return to Britain.
Molly Campbell, also known as Misbah Rana, walked out of school in Stornoway in the Western Isles last August and flew to Pakistan with her elder sister, triggering a bitter custody battle between her estranged parents.
Although she had claimed that she wanted to stay with her father, a High Court judge in Lahore has ruled that she should be returned to her mother.
The judge ordered that Molly must be handed over to the custody of the British High Commission within the next seven days. Once she has returned to Britain, it will be up to the Scottish courts to decide which parent should have permanent custody.
Molly's mother, Louise Campbell, said she had been speechless but overjoyed when she heard that the Pakistan High Court had decided in her favour.
"I want to reassure her that the case is still going on over here and she will get to say her point of view. I want to tell her that it is all going to be okay - it's all going to work out," she said.
In contrast her father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, who has accused his ex-wife of trying to get their daughter to eat what is forbidden in Islam and to drink alcohol, said his daughter was "devastated" by the decision and that he would be seeking legal advice about lodging an appeal.
"She was crying, she is very upset," he said.
The lawyer who represented his daughter in the Pakistan court said that the case had not been about custody but rather whether Rana had acted improperly by violating a court order made at the Court of Session in Scotland in June last year.
Molly, who asked to be known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, is the youngest of four children born to Campbell and former market trader Rana. The couple married in 1984 after meeting in Glasgow when he was 23 and Campbell was just 16.
Campbell, 38, is Molly's legal guardian after winning custody following the break-up of her marriage. In Lahore Molly refuted allegations she had been taken to Pakistan against her will, and in Glasgow her brother launched a scathing attack on their mother for claiming Molly had been abducted.
- INDEPENDENT
