The police have refused to register a case concerning an alleged gay relationship, as they believe the complainant could simply be trying to help his brother gain asylum in Britain, The Express Tribune has learnt.
On May 18, Additional District and Sessions Judge denied a petition for a case to be registered against Hafiz Salman Talib for allegedly marrying another man, named Zaheer Abbas, in the UK. The complainant, Nauman Talib, argued that his brother had committed an offense against Islamic law by entering into a civil partnership with Abbas.
The court found that there was no evidence that the men were married, and directed Nauman to approach the station house officer (SHO) concerned with his complaint.
Sabzazar SHO Khalid Mahmood Farooqi told The Express Tribune that the police had investigated the matter and believed that the complaint was fabricated for personal reasons, and so they had refused to register a first information report.
According to the complainant, Hafiz had travelled from the UK to Lahore in April to visit his family and had told then that he had entered into a civil partnership with another man. However, the SHO said that Nauman did not even have evidence of his brother arriving in Pakistan from the UK. He suspected that Nauman was either trying to get his brother disinherited by the family, or was trying to help him get asylum in England.
Nauman and his lawyer Mian Adeel Yaqoob approached the Sabzazar SHO on Friday night, but he turned down their application, noting in the station’s record that the complaint had been found to be fake and that it had a hidden motive.
Yaqoob said that he would move the Lahore High Court in a few days to get the SHO to register a case.
Muhammad Talib Hussain, father of Hafiz and Nauman, said that he had decided to disinherit his younger son because of his civil union with another man.
“He is dead to me,” he said, adding that if he found out that Nauman was trying to help Hafiz gain asylum in the UK, he would disinherit his older son too.
In earlier conversations about the case with The Express Tribune, Nauman had boasted that when Hafiz informed the family about his civil union in the UK, family members had beaten up the 20-year-old.
He said they had intended to lock him in the house till he repented, but he managed to escape. He said that they would offer a Rs50,000 reward for information on Hafiz’s whereabouts.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2011.
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