Mohammed Sarwar, the MP for Glasgow Central and a prominent member of the British Muslim community, has agreed to meet the mother of a missing Scottish girl before flying to Pakistan to try to track down the 12-year-old allegedly abducted by her father.

Molly Campbell disappeared on Friday when she flew from her home in Scotland's Western Isles to Glasgow and on to Lahore. A police investigation was launched amid allegations that she had been adbucted and taken to Pakistan by her father. Her distraught mother, Louise, 38, who has legal custody of the child after a 2001 divorce, made an emotional plea for Molly's return at a press conference yesterday.

Times Online has learned that Mr Sarwar will fly to Glasgow tomorrow to meet Molly's mother and then travel to Pakistan to provide whatever help he can to find her daughter. The MP's offer came after a plea for help by Alasdair Morrison, who is MSP for the Western Isles.

Mr Sarwar is returning to London from a family holiday tonight and is due to meet Mr Morrison in his Glasgow constituency tomorrow morning to learn more about the case. Before the meeting with Mr Sarwar takes place, Mr Morrison will meet Ms Campbell at her home in the Western Isles and, if she feels well enough, he will invite her to fly with him to Glasgow to meet Mr Sarwar and attend their meeting.

Equipped with detailed information about Molly, her father and her circumstances, the Labour MP will fly out to Lahore to try to track down the schoolgirl.

The news came as a friend of Molly's father claimed she had been taken to Pakistan voluntarily - and may have telephoned the police to tell them so. Bashir Maan, a family friend and the president of the National Association of British Pakistanis, also cast doubt on whether Molly would be exposed to a forced marriage, as has been claimed. He said Molly had begged to be taken back to Pakistan.

Ten years ago, Mr Sarwar flew to Pakistan to help rescue two Glasgow sisters from forced marriages. He helped to secure the return of Rifat Haq, 20, and her sister Nazia, 13, to Scotland after it was claimed that they had been forced to marry their cousins.

Mr Morrison told Times Online: "He has done extraordinary things over the years. Ten years ago, he had two girls rescued from Pakistan. So as soon as all this started, I immediately phoned my good friend and colleague and asked for his help. I am meeting him tomorrow to discuss this, and then he will fly to Pakistan and use all of his contacts to help us."

He added: "Sarwar is massive in Pakistan. He has contacts all the way from the Prime Minister downwards. He's a huge figure there."

Mr Sarwar, who is of Pakistani origin, remained on holiday with his family today. But a spokeswoman in his office confirmed the meeting. "He is on holiday, and he is flying back to Britain tonight. He has been asked for help by Alasdair Morrison, so he is having a meeting with Mr Morrison and Louise Campbell tomorrow to see what he can do," she said. "Then, he is flying out to Pakistan."

She would not reveal where the meeting is taking place, saying the group wanted "peace" for their discussions.

It is believed as many as 1,000 British Asian women are forced to marry every year. If the wives rebel, relatives can often resort to violence to defend family honour. Up to 20 cases of murder over the past decade have been related to the breakdown of arranged marriages.

Mr Maan, a former Glasgow councillor who has known Molly's father, Sajad Ahmed Rana, since the 1980s when he developed properties in the city, described suggestions that she was taken to Pakistan against her will for an arranged marriage as "total rubbish".

"He is the kind of father who has let his older children marry according to their own wishes," he said. "Molly didn't like to stay with her mother. She wanted to stay with her sister, brothers and father. They are all together now in Pakistan."

Northern Constabulary suspect that Molly, who is also known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana, was picked up by her 18-year-old sister on Friday morning before the pair flew to Glasgow from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

They then flew to Lahore with their father, who had visited Lewis the previous day before travelling to Glasgow. Mr Maan claimed Molly was unhappy in Stornoway and living with her mother.

He added: "I know the girl had been trying to send e-mails and texts to her brothers and sister and father, pleading with them to take her away."

He said that Molly had since contacted police, her teacher and her mother to say that she wanted to remain in Pakistan. Police confirmed a phone call from a person believed to be Molly had been made to Stornoway police station on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Maan went on: "The father went to see Molly about two months ago. He went to the school where she was because he dared not go to the house.

"He saw her and she started crying and wanted to go with him. He told her that he couldn't because he would be breaking the law. He left her there but told her he was trying to get access through the court and said the family would come regularly to see her.

"But on Thursday Molly's sister and father went to the school and Molly was clinging to them saying 'please don't leave me here'.

"The girl has phoned the police, phoned her mother and her teacher to say she has left of her own free will. No one has abducted her, no one has forced her."

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