MP talks to missing schoolgirl
Louise Campbell has issued an emotional plea for her daughter to come home
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Thursday, 31, Aug 2006 03:57
A Scottish MP has been told he will be able to talk to missing schoolgirl Molly Campbell when he arrives in Pakistan on a mediating mission.
Mohammad Sarwar, who represents the Glasgow Govan constituency for Labour, was due in Lahore on business but has now agreed to help track down the 12-year-old girl, who has not been seen in Britain since last week.
Police believe that Molly left her Stornoway school in the Western Islands on Friday and travelled to Pakistan via Glasgow with her sister and, latterly, her father Sajed Rana.
It has been reported that Mr Rana took his daughter to Pakistan as part of an arranged marriage and Mr Sarwar hopes to be able to find out whether this is true.
The MP met with Louise Campbell, the mother of Molly and estranged husband of Mr Rana, at Glasgow airport this morning and told reporters that he had promised to attempt to resolve the situation.
"I told her I would be happy to mediate in this difficult dispute.and hopefully we will be able to find the mechanism and solution that is acceptable to all family members," Mr Sarwar said.
"I will be talking to Molly tomorrow morning in private and after that I will know if she left the country happily or if she was forced."
Alasdair Morrison, the Labour MSP for the Western Isles, also attended the meeting and confirmed that Mr Sarwar will meet Molly "in private" and will then try to "establish contact between her and her mother".
"We discussed a wide range of issues, but Mr Sarwar gave Molly's mother cast iron assurances on the issue of forced marriage," the MSP said.
"The first and most important thing is to establish Molly's physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, and he will do that tomorrow," he added.