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| July 14, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-us-Sani 6, 1426 |
Plea against dower dismissed
PESHAWAR, July 13: A local court dismissed an appeal filed by a person requesting that he should be absolved from payment of dower and alimony to his former wife as she was his foster sister. The additional district and sessions judge, shahid Khan, upheld a judgment of the family court delivered last year through which the marriage of the appellant, Sheraz Khan, with his wife, Ms Azra, was dissolved and a decree was issued ordering him to pay dower and alimony to his former wife.
The appellant had claimed that 10 years after his marriage with his cousin, Azra Bibi, he came to know that she was his foster sister. He added that as his nikah with Ms Azra stood void, therefore the dower and maintenance should also be declared void.
The judge, Shahid Khan, ruled that the appellant could not produce any evidence in support of his contention that Ms Azra was his foster sister. The court observed that the appellant had claimed that his mother-in-law, who happened to be his maternal aunt, Ms Zakia, had informed him about that fact, but she had refuted that claim before the court.
The man claimed that after 10 years of their marriage he came to know that his wife was his foster sister. He added that he went to a famous seminary in Akora Khattak and a scholar gave him a decree that a foster brother and sister could not marry and their nikkah stood void.
Sheraz alleged that following that his wife left him. He added that she had also participated in his second marriage.
Ms Zakia was also summoned by the court and she had denied that they were foster brother and sister. She stated that neither she had told him anything in that regard nor his statement was correct.
Initially, the woman, Ms Azra, had filed a suit for dissolution of marriage and recovery of dower and maintenance. They got married on Dec 27, 1993, and were having four children. Ms Azra claimed that her husband wanted to marry another woman and as she was not permitting him he used to severely beat her and finally she was asked to leave his residence. She claimed that she lived for more than an year at her parents home and during that period her husband contracted second marriage.
The family judge Miss Sadaf Gul Durrani had turned down the husband’s plea on the ground that how could for 10 long years they lived together and he came to know about that fact so late.
The court had allowed the suit of Ms Azra on Sep 21, 2004, and ordered dissolution of their marriage on ground of cruelty. The judge also ordered to pay dower amount of Rs50,000, return gold ornaments of three tolas and a five-marla house, pay maintenance of Rs1,000 per month to the woman and Rs2,000 as maintenance of the four children residing with their mother.
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