Court allows woman to go home with husband

Her mother claims she was abducted and forced into marriage.

RAWALPINDI:

A high court judge on Monday allowed a woman to go home with her husband after her mother alleged she was abducted and forced into marriage.

Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sindhu of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench allowed Sobia Bano, 22, to go home with Ghulam Rasool, whom she married without the consent of her mother.

Sobia had approached the court to nullify an FIR registered with the Attock police against her husband. The FIR, lodged by her mother Rukhsana Ghafoor, accused Rasool of kidnapping and adultery.

On Monday, Justice Sindhu adjourned the hearing after Rukhsana’s counsel sought further time from the court.

The court, however, did not agree to the counsel’s plea of sending Sobia to Darul Aman, allowing her to leave with her husband.

“My mother claims that I married a relative and she has prepared a forged nikahnama (marriage certificate) to blackmail us,” she said.

However, a police officer claimed that the nikahnama was authentic and justified his claim by saying that Sobia never appeared before the police to challenge the allegations against her.

Following this argument, a surprised Justice Sindhu asked how the police could have declared the nikahnama genuine when the girl had openly denied it.

The petitioner, on the other hand, said she and her husband did not appear before the police as they feared they would be killed if they went to Attock. The next hearing, along with the court’s judgement is scheduled for April 4.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2012.