After nine years: Meera’s marriage case verdict to be announced today

Actress expresses dismay and gloom over slow judicial process

LAHORE: Expressing her gloom and dismay over snail-paced court proceedings, actress Irtiza Rubab, popularly known among her fans as Meera, said on Tuesday that it took nine years for the court to finally issue a verdict in her case of jactitation of marriage.

The film actress had filed a lawsuit seeking orders to restrain her self-proclaimed husband from calling her his wife. The court is likely to announce the verdict today, nine years after Meera had filed the case.



Meera had filed jactitation of marriage case on July 25, 2009 which kept lingering on due to Attiqueur Rehman who submitted over a dozen applications. These petitions sought orders to get her medically examined to prove she was his wife and that she be restrained from going abroad. There was also a lawsuit seeking possession of a house, claiming it Rehman’s property where Meera was living.



The petitioner also asked that Meera be restrained from contracting another marriage till a final decision on an application she had filed.

“This case has no legal position as it is completely based on forged documents,” she said. “Surprisingly, it took nine years for the court to decide this case,” Meera remarked. She said everywhere in the world, family cases were decided within three to six months, but her case lingered on for nine years.

“I wonder what happens to the poor women of society who remain trapped.”

Meera said she respected the judiciary and the Constitution of the country. The actress stressed she was not afraid of facing courts unlike former PM Nawaz Sharif and others who were running away from the judicial system.

Case details

Both the parties made complete efforts to establish a case against each other through different applications. However, most of the petitions were filed by Attiqueur Rehman, the self-proclaimed husband of the film actress.

Meera, in her jactitation of marriage petition, asked that Rehman be restrained from calling her his wife. She asked that the marriage certificate, which the ‘husband’ produced before the court, be set aside as it was fake.

In response to Meera’s lawsuit for jactitation of marriage, the self-proclaimed husband had filed an application seeking orders for the actress to be restrained from contracting another marriage.

The judge, after hearing detailed arguments, had reserved his decision for November 15.

During the court proceedings, Supreme Court Advocate Sardar Balakh Sher Khosa raised a point that it first must be decided whether the marriage certificate submitted by Rehman was original or fake.

As a result, the respective union council’s representative was summoned by the court. However, the official failed to appear until a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued.

Finally, after a year of court’s notices, an official of the UC concerned appeared before the court. He testified that the nikahnama was not registered in his union council.



Meera’s lawyer further argued that the record of union council mentioned on the certificate showed that no such marriage was registered. Moreover, the stamps placed on the marriage certificates were all forged.

While the counsel for Rehman argued that the court that the nikahnama was valid and Meera had been gifted a house in DHA Lahore after their marriage. He implored there are several bank transactions which could prove that Meera had received money from Rehman’s accounts.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2017.