SUKKUR, Nov 29: Balkhsher Mahar has reportedly been kept at an undisclosed place in Sukkur district from where he will be produced beforethe Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench, on Dec 3.

Informed sources said that a senior advocate and police officials have helped him prepare his statement that he had divorced his wife, Shaista Almani, which is expected to be repeated in the court.

It is being speculated that as Shaista was in Iddat (a certain period during which a divorcee woman has to live in seclusion) she might not appear in the court. Her advocate will raise this point in the court and seek time to produce Shaista in the court.

Sources disclosed that on the intervention of Ghotki District Nazim and chief of the Mahar clan, Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar, Balkhsher secretly went to the Pano Akil police station and recorded his statement.

Sources said that after the court order to produce the couple before it on Dec 3, the police authorities asked Ali Gohar to cooperate in the matter. Ali Gohar directed, Haji Lal Mohammad Mahar, the uncle of Balkhsher, to produce him at the police station to record his statement.

A tribal chief, who has played a vital role in the matter, told journalists on the condition of anonymity that four meeting were held between the elders of the Mahar and Almani clans to discuss the crisis arising out of the couple’s marriage against the will of Shaista’s parents.

At the final meeting, Rs500,000 fine was imposed on the Mahars which was paid to the Almani Sardar by the relatives of Balkhsher.

When this correspondent contacted the counsel of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Imdad Awan, for his comments on the latest situation, he said that being a petitioner in the matter, he could not comment on it outside the court.