Justice for all: Court permits eloped couple to live together

Ghulam and Mehwish finally get the chance to spend their lives together without being hassled by anyone.

SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court Sukkur bench has allowed a newly wed couple, Ghulam Murtaza Channa and Mehwish, to live together. The court ordered the police not to take any action against the couple on the basis of an FIR registered by the girl’s father, Rewat Mal.                

The couple was represented in court by their lawyer, Abdul Ghani Shaikh, on Thursday. According to Ghani, in her statement, Mehwish, (previously Manesha Kumari) categorically denied that she had been kidnapped. “Mehwish stated that the case registered against Channa was fake and baseless and therefore requested the court to order the police not to harass the couple,” said Shaikh. He added that she eloped with Channa of her own free will and converted to Islam at Dargah Amrot Sharif, under the supervision of religious scholar, Siraj Ahmed Shah Amroti.

At the hearing, Rewat Mal’s lawyer, Mukesh Kumar, objected that the dowry in the nikah nama had been fixed at Rs5,000. “There should be some security so that she could live peacefully in case she is separated from her husband,” the lawyer said. To this, Ghulam Murtaza Channa replied that he was ready to transfer his property in his wife’s name. They were directed to appear before the court on August 23 and produce the property documents.

Mehwish, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that she had made it clear before the court that neither was she kidnapped, nor was forced to covert to Islam. “I eloped with Ghulam Murtaza Channa, converted to Islam and married him of my own free will,” said Mehwish wearing a victorious smile. Her father, however, avoiding the media, lamented that he did not know what kind of magic they (Muslims) possess. “My own daughter is not ready to talk to me.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2012.