Legally bound: Marriage no excuse for confinement

Court sends girl with parents; alleged kidnapper claims freewill union.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC), on Friday, held that marriage does not mean confining and restraining a woman from movement to any place of her choice.

Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed Khan of the LHC held this while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Allah Rakha for the recovery of his 15-year-old daughter Farzana from the custody of Rehmatullah. On the court’s order, the Kanganpur SHO produced Farzana after recovering her from Rehmatullah’s custody.

Farzana told the court that Rehmatullah had kidnapped her from her home 18 months ago. She said he had subjected her to torture including, electric shocks and forced her to sign a marriage contract. Since then she said she had had a baby girl named Fatima, who was now six-months-old.

She said she had had no contact with her parents as she had been confined to a single room. She said a few days ago help from one of her neighbours, she had phoned her father and informed him about the situation.

Advocate Rana Saeed Akhtar, counsel for Allah Rakha, submitted that the family had contacted the police for registration of a case against Rehmatullah but the police did not entertain their complaint. He said Rehmatullah had threatened Allah Rakha with his children’s death after which he had shifted from Kanganpur to Gujranwala.

Rehmatullah’s lawyer submitted that the girl had married his client of her free will. He said the forced marriage charge was false.

He said there had never been any question of detaining her or restricting her movement.

The judge held that even if Farzana had contacted a valid marriage, she could not be confined or her movement restrained.

The court gave Farzana into her parents’ custody as she said she wanted to leave with her parents. The judge also ordered the police to produce Farzana’s daughter on the next date of hearing, May 23.

Advocate Akhtar quoted Farzana as saying that Rehmatullah was already married with children. He said according to his client’s daughter, Rehmatullah had been separated from his wife for the past one year. He said no FIR had been registered against the man. He said after the petition was decided, Farzana would initiate criminal proceedings against Rehmatullah.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.