Polyandry allegation: Nikah witness arrested

A woman who was already married allegedly married the arrested man’s brother

ISLAMABAD: Police have arrested a man for allegedly signing a marriage certificate as a witness where the ‘bride’ was already married to another man.

The Koral police booked Sajid Safeer on June 11 for allegedly marrying Khizra Saqib, on the complaint of her brother-in-law Adil Jahangir.



The two allegedly got married and the suspect sent a photo of the marriage certificate to the complainant.

The police found that Tazeem Hussain, Safeer’s brother, had signed the marriage certificate as a witness and arrested him on Wednesday. The police produced the suspect before Judicial Magistrate Mujahid Rahim on Friday and requested seven-day physical remand of the suspect. The court, however, only allowed one-day physical remand and directed the police to produce the suspect before the court again on Saturday.

Koral SHO Abdur Rauf Kiani said the police were on the lookout for the suspect. He said ‘authenticity’ of the second marriage had not been established yet, but even if the certificate was ‘authentic’, it would have no legal standing as polyandry is not legal in Pakistan.



Two acquitted of theft charges

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate has acquitted two persons on charges of theft and attempted murder. Waheed Khan and Muhammad Naseer had been booked by the Margalla and Shalimar police in 2014 and 2007, respectively, on theft, forgery and attempted murder charges. Judicial Magistrate Humayun Dilawar set them free on Thursday over lack of evidence.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2016.