Free-will marriage: Couple seeks protection from woman’s family

Say her father accepted the proposal, but later backed out.

BAHALWALPUR: A man and his wife, who say they have received death threats from the woman’ family over their free will marriage, have requested the police to protect them.

Noor Muhammad and Tahira Noor, residents of Khanqah Sharif in Rangpur, held a press conference at the Bahawalpur Press Club on Wednesday.

Muhammad said their families had arranged their marriage a few years ago, but Noor’s father later wanted his daughter to marry into a wealthier family. He said he and his family tried to convince him to get Noor married to him, but he refused.

Muhammad said on January 27, 2012, he married Noor in a court. Two months later, he said, his father-in-law registered a false robbery and kidnapping complaint against him at the Taranda Muhammad Panah police station.

He said he was now pressing him to divorce his daughter and was using his contacts in the police to harass him and his family. He said 10 days ago, the police had arrested his brother-in-law without any justification.



He requested the Lahore High Court chief justice, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan regional and district police officers to provide them protection and order the police to let his brother-in-law go. They also requested for orders to the police to withdraw all the false cases against Muhammad.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2012.