PESHAWAR: A woman, who married an inhabitant of Khyber Agency abroad of her own free will, on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court challenging the alleged illegal detention of her husband by the administration of the agency at the behest of his family members to pressure him to divorce her.

The woman, Afsheen Bibi, of Rawalpindi, filed a habeas corpus petition requesting the high court to direct the Khyber Agency political agent and Bara tehsil assistant political agent to free the detainee, Irfanullah, a resident of Bara.

The petition was filed through lawyer Malik Nasrun Minallah, stating the petitioner used to do a job in Dubai, where she met Irfanullah, who ran a shop of communication items.

The petitioner said she and detainee married there few years ago. She said since she and the detainee had contracted love marriage against the will of the family members of the detainee, the latter were not pleased with the marriage.

The petitioner said she and her husband came to Pakistan to buy a house for themselves and had brought a handsome amount of money along with gold ornaments for the purpose.

She alleged that the husband of the maternal aunt of her husband, Amin Khan, along with other relatives came to their house and took away the said amount and gold ornaments prompting her to lodge a criminal case against them.

The petitioner claimed Amin Khan was in fact interested to marry his daughter to the detainee as it was decided by both the families in their childhood.

She said on the third day of Eidul Azha in Sept this year, her husband’s brother, Hidayatullah, called his brother to Bara on the pretext of amicable resolution of the dispute.

“When my husband went to Bara, he was confined by family members and pressured to divorce me and marry the daughter of Amin Khan. After keeping him in illegal confinement for many days, he was handed over to the APA and since then he has been in illegal detention,” she said.

The woman said after hectic efforts, she managed to reach Bara and met her husband in the administration’s lock-up.

She said despite her repeated requests, the administration didn’t free her husband.

The petitioner said the PA and APA had in excess of their lawful authority kept her husband behind bars regardless of the fact that he had neither committed any offence nor was he required to the administration in any criminal activity. She said the detention of her husband was unconstitutional and illegal.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2015