These bureaus advertise their services in newspapers, pamphlets and various markets. A number of their customers, however, remain unsatisfied with their services and believe they have been conned for large sums of money.
Farhan Abbasi shared his family’s experience with a local matchmaker. His mother contracted the services of a matchmaker named Mrs Zahoor in Rawalpindi through a classified advertisement in a local Urdu daily for his sister.
The matchmaker charged his family Rs8000 but was only able to find one potential groom, which the family rejected. When the family asked her to find more matches, she refused to recognise them and then changed her contact number. “They are selling dreams to people; dreams that they cannot fulfill,” Abbasi said.
Marina Batool contacted three different matrimonial services, Sehar Associates, Bandhan and Mrs Khwaja, to find a match for her son. “Sadly none of them helped me in finding potential brides, however one of them sent an agent to collect the registration fee which was more then Rs12000,” she said.
Mrs Col Athar, who runs a marriage bureau in Rawalpindi, says she charges Rs7000 for registering a bride or groom and then starts searching for a match for them. She charges an additional Rs15000 once the marriage has been finalised.
However Sadia Fahad, a writer, had a different story to tell of her experience with Mrs Col Athar.
“She charged us Rs7000 and did not contact us after that. When my mother called her she said she cannot do anything as I was not beautiful,” she said, adding, “She treated many of my acquaintances the same way.”
Mrs Col Athar denied the charges. “I never dodge any family, majority of my clients are high government officials and I never disappoint them,” she said. However she acknowledged that she only registered girls that were good looking because potential grooms were not interested in plain-looking girls.
Sehar Associates owner, Arif Hussain, said the costs of registrations were high because they had to book individual advertisements for their clients in local dailies.
He added that the fees they charged were not refundable as the whole advertising process “costs them a lot”.
Another matchmaker, Mrs Urooj Malik, said her fees were directly proportional to the wealth of her customers. “I charge my clients Rs10,000 or more, depending on how rich they are,” she said.
Marriage bureaus are mostly run by individuals under sole proprietorship. There is little check and balance on their activities.
However there are a few precautions that a person going to them can take, according to Basil Nabi Malik, a lawyer. He advised that people going to marriage bureaus get proper receipts for their deposits.
These receipts must also prove the identity of the person receiving the money or else they might not stand up to scrutiny in court.
The clients should also insist on a proper contract before they hand their money over, Malik added.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 15th, 2010.
COMMENTS (14)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ