April 9, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1427

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MIANWALI, April 8: Two Vani girls were divorced by their spouses on Saturday after paying ‘diyat’ amounting to Rs170,000 on the intervention of Daudkhel police and due interest taken by area notables. A few days back a marriage party returned without brides in Daudkhel Town, some 22km from here, when a religious leader had refused to perform their ‘nikahs.’

The girls had got ‘khula’ from a family court from their ex-husbands with whom their nikah had been solemnised in childhood under the Vani tradition.

The Maulana said the family court could not dissolve the earlier nikah of the girls as judges were not qualified as Qazi of the Shariat court.

He said the earlier nikah of the girls by their ‘walis’ stood valid despite the fact that the same had been performed under the Vani tradition.

Reports said in April 1985, one Amanullah Khan had been booked under section 302 of the PPC for the murder of Attaullah Khan of Daudkhel over a land dispute.

A Mianwali sessions judge had awarded him death sentence. Later, elders and common friends of both the parties intervened and reached a compromise against Rs250,000 and hands of two daughters of the convict were given in Vani to two sons of deceased Attaullah.

Verbal nikah of Kulsoom BiBi (6) with Ikramullah Khan (7) and Nusrat BiBi (8) with Saifullah Khan (12) were performed in 1990 by their walis. After the compromise, Amanullah Khan was acquitted.

With the passage of time, both the girls got education up to graduation level while the boys remained illiterate. When the girls came of age, they refused to honour their elders’ decisions and approached NGOs and the police.

On the other hand, the boys filed petitions for the custody of their wives. The family court dissolved both the marriages under ‘khula.’

After ‘khula’, marriages of both the girls were arranged and the Maulana refused to perform fresh ‘nikah.’

After press reports, the IGP ordered Daudkhel SHO Ahmed Abbas Khan to solve the matter amicably. The SHO summoned both the parties along with notables of the area and succeeded to convince the bridegrooms to divorce the girls against Rs170,000 ‘diyat.’