ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: The Supreme Court will start hearing on Monday a set of cases involving a common question — is marriage of a Muslim woman without the consent of her guardian valid?

Appeals against the Lahore High Court decisions holding that a Muslim woman was not free to marry of her will, and Nikah solemised without the consent of her guardian would be invalid, are pending in the Supreme Court since 1997.

The Supreme Court office has included the case in the “running list” of old cases. The case was taken up by a three-judge bench on Wednesday, but the counsel for the appellant, Advocate Akram Sheikh, was not present in the courtroom.

The court was informed that Advocate Sheikh had left because of “blood pressure problem.”

The bench consisted of Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari. The court announced that it would take up the case on Nov 3.

Former Human Rights Commission chairperson Asma Jehangir is appearing in the case as a respondent as well as counsel, because it was alleged by Abdul Waheed Rokri, father of Saima Waheed, that she had abducted his daughter.

Ms Jehangir said that due to delay in the decision on the appeals against the LHC decision, over 250 couples were facing hardships and most of them were languishing in jails.

She said the LHC decision had given a licence to the police to harass the people and throw them into lockups on the complaints of the family members of the women.

An LHC bench, headed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan, had sparked a controversy by holding that a Muslim woman was not at liberty to marry of her free will.

When the matter reached the Supreme Court in 1997, it immediately suspended the operation of the LHC judgments and announced that it would decide the issue by giving an authoritative pronouncement.

One Shabana Parveen from Faislabad asked the court that her case be separated from the set of cases. She said she had not married Zafar Iqbal, who claimed to be her husband, and he had produced a fake Nikah nama.

Justice Zafar Cheema of the LHC had declared in the case of Ms Parveen that marriage without the consent of Wali was invalid and had sent her with her parents. Mr Iqbal is still pursuing the case and claiming that Ms Parveen is his wife.

The court did not accept the request of Ms Parveen and said her case would be decided with identical matters on Monday.

Ms Waheed, daughter of Maulana Rokri, who lives in Norway with her husband Arshad, has sent an affidavit which has been placed on the record of the court.

She said her father wanted to marry her with a Saudi Sheikh, who was 25 years older than her and his business partner, to get financial benefits.

She alleged in her affidavit that former chief justice Khalilur Rehman Khan and justices retired Ahsanul Haq Chaudhry and Abdul Hafeez Cheema, being close friends of her uncle, gave a decision against her marriage.