MULTAN: Mehnil Ahmed is expected to arrive in Multan on Monday (today) for a medical examination which will determine his gender. The result will determine whether or not he can stay married to his wife.

The examination was ordered after police submitted a report to court saying that Ahmed was born female but had married Ayesha Sajjad, whose mother has filed a case to retrieve her daughter.

Mehnil Ahmed, a resident of Kot Sultan, Layyah district, had married Ayesha, a resident of Taunsa Sharif, on April 26 in Multan.

On June 25, Najma Sajjad, Ayesha’s mother, filed an abduction case at the Taunsa Sharif city police station, stating that Ahmed had kidnapped her daughter, who was at most 18 years old, with the help of five others on June 22. She said that Ahmed had previously kidnapped her daughter for three days and returned her to her family on June 10.

Ayesha then filed a petition in the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, through her counsel Mian Bashir Ahmed Bhatti, on July 2, requesting the court to quash the police case against her husband and his relatives. She said that she was 22 years old and had married Ahmed of her free will. She told the court that her family wanted to marry her off to someone else, which was why they had filed a fabricated and false case with the police. She said that she had not been abducted or forced to marry Ahmed, but her mother was now trying to force her to end her marriage and be with someone who was unacceptable to her.

She said that she had discussed the matter with the SHO overseeing the case, but it was obvious that the police were favouring her mother.

Ayesha requested the court to quash the case in the interest of justice.

Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, on July 4, directed the SHO to submit a report on the matter. In a criminal miscellaneous petition, the court granted the accused a week’s protective bail.

In another petition on July 23, Ayesha claimed that police had not followed court directions [to submit a report] and were harassing her and the accused. She requested the court to direct the SHO not to harass and pressurise her or the accused till a final decision on the main petition.

On July 25, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu directed the police not to harass the couple and to appear before the court with complete case records at the next case hearing. The police submitted its report the next day.

The report claimed that Ahmed’s gender had changed and that he had been living at Ayesha’s house for a year. It stated that a copy of the protective bail was received on July 5 but neither the petitioner nor the accused had joined police investigations.

The report said that the matter of the marriage was complicated because Ahmed was born female and was named Nazia Ahmed Hassan. It said a medical examination regarding the gender change was required.

On September 6, Ms Najma filed a civil miscellaneous petition through her counsel Sajjad Hussain Khan Malazai, stating that Ahmed and his family had pressured her daughter to file a plea seeking quashment of the FIR.

She claimed that the nikahnama, provided by the accused, and the contract of marriage were illegal. “It is necessary in these circumstances and also a requirement of law to separate the chaff from the grain regarding the gender change,” she stated.

She demanded a complete medical examination of Ahmed, terming it crucial for conclusion of the matter.

On November 30, Justice Ali Baqir Najafi ordered that Ahmed be medically examined on December 5 to ascertain his biological sex. The next hearing of the case will be held on Dec 8.

Ayesha’s counsel Usman Bhatti said the case should have been concluded after the allegedly abducted person had confirmed that she was not abducted. “Ahmed’s signs of a gender change are clear and the results of a medical examination will confirm that he is a male,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016