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| June 13, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1426 |
Man challenges alimony ruling
PESHAWAR, June 12: A man has requested a local court to absolve him from paying dower and alimony to his former wife on the grounds that she was his foster sister. The appellant, Shiraz Ali, told Judge Shahid Khan of the additional district and sessions court that he had found out after ten years of marriage that his ex-wife Azra Bibi was his foster sister. Just as his nikah with Ms Azra stood void, he said “the dower and maintenance charges should also be declared void”.
Last year, the family judge, Miss Sadaf Gul Durrani, ordered the dissolution of Ms Azra’s marriage with Mr Shiraz on grounds of cruelty and asked the latter to pay the woman dower as well as alimony.
Shiraz Ali filed an appeal before the additional district and sessions court against the family court’s ruling.
The court on Saturday recorded the statement of Ms Zakia, mother-in-law of the appellant, who also happens to be his maternal aunt. She disputed the appellant’s claim and said that Mr Shiraz and Ms Azra were not foster brother and sister.
She added that she had never told the appellant that her daughter was his foster sister as she had suckled both of them during their childhood. The court set the next hearing for June 26.
The couple were married on Dec 27, 1993, and they raised four children.
When Ms Azra filed a lawsuit to dissolve her marriage, she told the court that her husband wanted to marry another woman and because she wouldn’t give her consent he used to beat her. Things came to such a pass that he asked her to leave his house.
Ms Azra said she lived for more than a year at her parents’ home and it was during that period that her husband remarried.
For his part, Mr Shiraz claimed that when he found out he was married to his foster sister, he consulted a scholar at a famous seminary in Akora Khattak and invited him to decide the matter. The scholar issued a decree, saying that a foster brother and sister could not get married and therefore their nikkah stood void.
Following the decree, Mr Shiraz said that Ms Azra left him. He also claimed that she had even attended his second marriage.
The family court, however, turned down his plea on the ground that it wasn’t possible to live together for ten years and not know they were foster brother and sister.
The family judge, Ms Sadaf Gul Durrani, observed that the defendant (Shiraz) had neither examined his mother, or mother-in-law or any other person in support of his contentions during the trial. The judge described his allegation as “a blatant and cruel act” and said he had mentally tortured his wife.
The court had allowed the suit of Ms Azra on September 21, 2004, and ordered dissolution of their marriage on grounds of cruelty.
The judge also ordered the man to pay the dower amount of Rs50,000, return gold ornaments of three tolas and a 5-marla house, in addition to monthly maintenance charges of Rs1,000 to the woman and Rs2000 for their four children.
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