Conversion?: Kidnapping case against convert couple quashed
The woman’s first husband claims she converted to avoid seeking a divorce.
ISLAMABAD:
A court quashed a kidnapping case against a couple who married after converting to Islam.
The accused, Adnan Masih and Farzana Rani, converted to Islam from Christianity, tied the knot and were renamed as Muhammad Adnan and Farzana Bibi. But the woman’s ex-husband, Gilbert Masih filed an FIR against Adnan, his brother Kala Masih and Kala’s wife Shehzadi, who is also Farzana’s sister, for kidnapping his wife and forcing her to convert and marry Adnan.
The Islamabad High Court IHC on Monday ordered quashing of the FIR registered against the ‘newlyweds’ on their petition.
The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Malik Jawad Khalid adopted before the court that the Shahzad Town police had registered the case against Muhammad Adnan after they got married.
He informed the court that Farzana Bibi, a resident of Shahzad Town, was previously married to Gilbert Masih. However on May 5 she converted to Islam and left Gilbert. Later she married Muhammad Adnan, who also converted to Islam. He said the couple is now residing legally.
He contended that when Gilbert came to know about their marriage, he moved the police and lodged a complaint claiming that Farzana was kidnapped. Subsequently, the police registered a “fabricated FIR” against Adnan.
The counsel claimed that Bibi left her home willingly and embraced Islam after her marriage to Adnan according to Islamic injunctions and police lodged a fabricated FIR against Adnan, because the Christian members of Farzana’s family were not happy with her marriage.
He said that after registration of the FIR, the police arrested the petitioners’ siblings who are married to each other, and now the police are trying to arrest Adnan on the basis of a mala fide case. The petitioner requested the court to quash the FIR and restrain the police from arresting her husband.
In a hearing on Thursday, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui separated Shehzadi and Kala Masih from the case after deeming their involvement could not be proven.
During Thursday’s hearing, Gilbert’s lawyer Mujtaba Haider Sherazi argued that the conversion was only to force an annulment of the first marriage without formally applying for a divorce. He said Bibi could not simply leave Gilbert if she wanted to convert when it was mandatory for a married woman who wanted to convert to Islam to try and convince her non-Muslim husband to convert first. If he agreed, their marriage would have remained valid as both husband and wife would be Muslims, Sherazi argued, adding that only if he does not agree could the marriage be annulled.
Sherazi said in court that Bibi never tried to convince her husband to change faiths because she was already interested in Adnan, adding that the conversion was only to avoid prosecution under the original FIR.
Speaking on the phone on Monday, Malik Jawad Khalid later told The Express Tribune that when Bibi converted to Islam, her previous marriage contract was automatically annulled.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2012.
A court quashed a kidnapping case against a couple who married after converting to Islam.
The accused, Adnan Masih and Farzana Rani, converted to Islam from Christianity, tied the knot and were renamed as Muhammad Adnan and Farzana Bibi. But the woman’s ex-husband, Gilbert Masih filed an FIR against Adnan, his brother Kala Masih and Kala’s wife Shehzadi, who is also Farzana’s sister, for kidnapping his wife and forcing her to convert and marry Adnan.
The Islamabad High Court IHC on Monday ordered quashing of the FIR registered against the ‘newlyweds’ on their petition.
The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Malik Jawad Khalid adopted before the court that the Shahzad Town police had registered the case against Muhammad Adnan after they got married.
He informed the court that Farzana Bibi, a resident of Shahzad Town, was previously married to Gilbert Masih. However on May 5 she converted to Islam and left Gilbert. Later she married Muhammad Adnan, who also converted to Islam. He said the couple is now residing legally.
He contended that when Gilbert came to know about their marriage, he moved the police and lodged a complaint claiming that Farzana was kidnapped. Subsequently, the police registered a “fabricated FIR” against Adnan.
The counsel claimed that Bibi left her home willingly and embraced Islam after her marriage to Adnan according to Islamic injunctions and police lodged a fabricated FIR against Adnan, because the Christian members of Farzana’s family were not happy with her marriage.
He said that after registration of the FIR, the police arrested the petitioners’ siblings who are married to each other, and now the police are trying to arrest Adnan on the basis of a mala fide case. The petitioner requested the court to quash the FIR and restrain the police from arresting her husband.
In a hearing on Thursday, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui separated Shehzadi and Kala Masih from the case after deeming their involvement could not be proven.
During Thursday’s hearing, Gilbert’s lawyer Mujtaba Haider Sherazi argued that the conversion was only to force an annulment of the first marriage without formally applying for a divorce. He said Bibi could not simply leave Gilbert if she wanted to convert when it was mandatory for a married woman who wanted to convert to Islam to try and convince her non-Muslim husband to convert first. If he agreed, their marriage would have remained valid as both husband and wife would be Muslims, Sherazi argued, adding that only if he does not agree could the marriage be annulled.
Sherazi said in court that Bibi never tried to convince her husband to change faiths because she was already interested in Adnan, adding that the conversion was only to avoid prosecution under the original FIR.
Speaking on the phone on Monday, Malik Jawad Khalid later told The Express Tribune that when Bibi converted to Islam, her previous marriage contract was automatically annulled.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2012.