Custody row over British girl in Pakistan hits snag

ISLAMABAD, Jan 17 (Reuters) A custody battle over a British girl who wants to stay in Pakistan was deadlocked today after her Pakistani father refused his ex-wife's offer to drop the case if her daughter was sent back to Scotland for holidays.

The appeal in Pakistan's Supreme Court against an earlier decision to send 12-year-old Misbah Irum Ahmed Rana, known as Molly in Britain, back to Scotland to her mother, Louise Campbell, was adjourned due to the stalemate.

''The father has said 'no', as he does not want to send his daughter to meet her mother in Scotland,'' Nahida Mehboob Ellahi, a lawyer for Campbell told Reuters after the adjournment at the court in Islamabad.

Campbell was awarded custody by a lower court last November, but the girl's father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, appealed that ruling.

Misbah, who triggered a series of court battles after she left her mother in the Western Isles of Scotland and travelled to the eastern city of Lahore to be with her father last summer, said she did not want to return to Scotl and after learning of her mother's latest offer last week.

Rana has previously said he has no objection to Misbah's mother coming to Pakistan to see her daughter.

Rana's lawyer told the court Campbell was living in Scotland with a man out of marriage, with whom she also had a child.

Campbell has not come to Pakistan for any hearing due to ill health and financial problems, according to her lawyer.

REUTERS MS RK1720