Second marriage lands Muslim man in Pakistani prison

LAHORE – A man has been sentenced to three-month jail and Rs 5,000 fine for contracting second marriage without mandatory permission of first wife, according to local media.

Rabia Younas had filed a complaint against her husband Shoaib Zahid in Lahore’s Cantonment Courts, pleading that he contracted second marriage without obtaining her consent required under section 6 of Muslim Family Law Ordinance 1961.

After the woman’s counsel produced verbal and documentary evidence to prove the offence of the respondent, the Dawn reported, Magistrate Kashif Abbas handed down three-month imprisonment to the respondent and Rs5,000 fine.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/dr-aamir-liaquats-wife-rushed-to-hospital-after-second-marriage-controversy-surfaced/

Last December, in a similar case of second marriage without first wife’s permission, a man was sentenced to three months imprisonment and fined Rs 30,000 by a Rawalpindi’s civil court.

The convicted man’s wife Sajida Bibi had filed a petition in district civil court under Section 6 of Muslim family law, claiming that her husband Liaqat Khan had contracted a second marriage without her permission. However, Liaqat’s lawyer presented a divorce deed and other documents in the court as evidence and two witnesses who testified about his divorce before the judge.

According to the divorce deed, Liaqat had divorced Sajida on June 1, 2017, and got married again on July 9, 2017, but Sajida rejected the divorce claim and said that Liaqat had fabricated the document. Upon this, the judge sent Liaqat to jail for three months.

But it was two years ago when for the first time a court in Pakistan had sided with the woman under a 2015 family law, and followed a petition by Ayesha Bibi, who said her husband, Shahzad Saqib, had wed for a second time without her approval.

On November 2, 2017, Judicial magistrate Ali Jawwad Naqvi announced the verdict in a Lahore lower court, ordering the man to serve a six-month jail term and pay a fine of Rs200,000.

The court rejected the man’s argument that he did not need her permission because his religion allowed him four marriages.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a body that advises the government on the compatibility of laws with Islam, has often criticised the demand for a wife’s written approval if her husband wants to remarry. But the CII’s recommendations are not legally binding.