‘No one told me we were divorced’

Man moves court to cancel divorce one year after wife leaves.

LAHORE:

A 68-year-old man has moved the District Court to reverse his divorce, arguing that the ex parte proceedings of the case were illegal since he had never even known that his wife had filed a petition for the dissolution of marriage.

The court had summoned Ramazana Bibi, wife of Bashir Ahmed, for Saturday, but no one turned up to represent her. The case was then adjourned till September 16.

Ahmed said in his petition that he had only recently found out, through the secretary of his local union council in Kot Barkat Ali Khan village, Mian Channu tehsil, Khanewal district, that Ramazana, his wife of some 30 years, had obtained a divorce through the court on June 14 last year.

Ahmed said that he had received no notices from the court summoning him to attend hearings. He said his address mentioned in the divorce petition was incorrect, and this had been a deliberate tactic to ensure that he would not find out about the case. He said no notice had been given in the newspapers. In these circumstances, the court could not proceed ex parte against him.

Ramazana had said in her divorce suit that their relationship was poor and he would beat her over petty issues. They had been married since July 10, 1979, and had six children.

Ahmed told the court that he had returned home one day last year to find that Ramazana had gone. He had thought that his wife had run away with the neighbour, with whom she had been having an affair, and taken away Rs95,000 in cash, two tolas of gold jewelry and other valuables with them. He said that despite her infidelity, he wanted her to return to him to take care of their children.

Advocates Asif Chattha and Naeem Malik told The Express Tribune that complaints from respondents that they had not been notified were common. They said court notices often got held up at the union council and were not passed on to the respondent, and sometimes officials lied about having delivered the notice. Also, it was rare for officials to verify that a person’s address provided by the petition was correct.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2011.