Christian World | Pakistan's Federal Constitutional Court adjourned a review petition by the father of a Christian girl his family says was abducted at 12

ACW | October 22, 2026 — Pakistan's Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday, October 21, adjourned a review petition by the father of a Christian teenage girl, Morning Star News reported.

A court official said the summons had not reached the man accused of abducting the girl because his address was "incomplete". The court reissued the notice and did not set a date for the next hearing.

The two-judge bench was made up of Acting Chief Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Karim Khan Agha. The family's lawyer argued that the court's earlier judgment relied on precedents that lost force after a 2023 Federal Shariat Court ruling, which rejected physical puberty as the only test for marriage.

Rizvi said the case concerned a Lahore High Court ruling on alleged illegal confinement, not directly the girl's age, and that objections about her age should have been raised in a family court.

Safdar Chaudhry, chairman of the Christian ministry Raah-e-Nijaat, which supports the family, called the incomplete-address claim "mala fide" on the part of the police and said the accused had appeared in court on earlier notices. The report has not yet been confirmed by other sources.

Background: The family says the girl was abducted in July 2025, forcibly converted to Islam and married to the man. According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the court dismissed the father's custody petition on March 26, 2026, and on July 24, 2026 admitted his review petition and issued notices to the Attorney General for Pakistan and the Advocate General of Punjab. The same agency reported that Rizvi said at that hearing that, from the district court to the Federal Constitutional Court, the girl never stated that she had been forced into the marriage or the conversion.

Why it matters: The case concerns freedom of religion or belief and the protection of children from religious minorities. Morning Star News reported that Open Doors ranks Pakistan eighth on its 2026 World Watch List.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Sources: Christian Daily International / Morning Star News — Court in Pakistan adjourns hearing on Christians' abducted daughter; Associated Press of Pakistan — FCC issues notices to Attorney General, Punjab Advocate General

Photo: Christian Daily International / Morning Star News; faces of the family and companions blurred by ACW