Pakistani child maid employed by judge was tortured: doctors

Medical examination of a 10-year- old Pakistani maid, who was allegedly beaten up while working for an influential district judge which sparked widespread outrage, has shown multiple signs of torture, the head of the country's premier hospital said today.
The case surfaced towards the end of last month when pictures of the maid went viral on social media, prompting chief justice of the Supreme Court to order a police probe.
Chief of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Professor Dr Javed Akram told the media that in the light of court orders a high level team of doctors conducted the medical examination of the girl.

"The examination shows multiple signs of torture. The girl has burn marks on her back and on the left hand. She also has a blunt wound on her face," he said.
It was her second test as the initial medical examination report by PIMS stated that the wounds on the girl's body were the result of blunt trauma and the burns were attributed to an "accidental matchbox".
The re-examination was ordered by the Office of District Magistrate, Islamabad, and the medical board comprised a general surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a burn surgeon and a psychiatrist.

In the First Information Report registered with Islamabad police, the girl said she had been working at the house of Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan for nearly two years.

After the criticism, the judge has tried to settle the matter privately and reached at an agreement with the father of the girl.
Later, the father told a local court, that there was no truth about allegations of torture and he had reached a private settlement with the judge.
However, the case took another turn when Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the case.
Meanwhile, the father disappeared with the girl but police traced him and recovered the victim on Sunday and took her for medical examination.
Initially, the girl told police that she was often beaten up in the house.

Most recently, she alleged the judge's wife shoved her hands onto a burning stove and then beat her after a broom went missing.
She said the owners of the house would usually lock her up in a storeroom at night besides starving and beating her.