Runaway Afghan couple: ‘DNA results were not sealed’

After unfavourable results, couple wants case shifted to Islamabad.

PESHAWAR:

In the midst of a case challenging the legality of their marriage, an eloped Afghan couple on Wednesday requested that their case be transferred to Islamabad.

Earlier the results of DNA tests also went against their stance.

Naeem Khan, the counsel for the eloped couple — Haiwad, 23 and Maryam, 22 — filed an application before a Peshawar family court to request the transfer. They also challenged the DNA results which showed Maryam to be the mother of Afghan national Abdul Rehman’s children.

Rehman, 60, has previously claimed that Maryam had been his wife since 2006 and was the mother of his two daughters --- a three-year-old and a four-year-old. The DNA results proved that Maryam was their mother, however, Khan argued that the envelope containing the DNA test result was not sealed. It was meant to be unsealed in presence of the parties and medical board, he said.



Maryam has denied Rehman’s claim and said that both children were the daughters of her late sister Marzia, Rahman’s first wife who died in 2006.

During a hearing before Judge Kiran Shaukat on September 18, Rehman asserted that he and Maryam were both girls’ parents and asked the court to conduct DNA tests on all of them so that his claim could be proven.

On September 19, five witnesses to the alleged first marriage testified in court, following which, on October 19, blood samples of the children, Maryam and Rehman were collected at Khyber Medical University’s forensic lab and sent to Rawalpindi for DNA testing.

During a hearing before the same judge on Tuesday, DNA results proving Maryam to be the biological mother of the two girls were announced.

On Wednesday, the couples’ counsel said that although Rehman produced a nikahnama (marriage certificate) before the court, they will challenge it as it had been confirmed by local Afghan nationals and not through the official channel, namely the foreign ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2013.