The relatives of a girl who married against their will beat up her husband when the couple came to the Lahore High Court. The couple had arrived for the hearing of a kidnapping and theft case against the husband moved by the girl’s family.
Nau Bahar was kicked, punched and his clothes ripped, after he was spotted with his wife, Zahida who fainted. Security personnel eventually stepped in.
Bahar later narrated the incident in court. Justice Rauf Ahmad Sheikh ordered the police to take action against the perpetrators.
Zahida told the judge under oath that she had wed Bahar of her own volition.
The counsel for her father, Manzoor, told the court that Zahida was already married to her cousin and produced a nikah nama to this effect. However, the investigating officer for the case told the court that the secretary of the union council concerned had not verified the nikah nama produced by the girl’s family. Zahida said she had been engaged to her cousin but their nikah was never solemnised.
Justice Sheikh disposed of the petition and directed the police to investigate the matter purely on merit.
Zahida’s father asked that she be sent to the court to send his daughter to a shelter but he refused, saying she was free to go where she wished.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2011.
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