LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed a petition by a lawyer seeking record of the divorce between Bushra Bibi, the wife of PTl Chairman Imran Khan, and her former husband, Khawar Farid Maneka.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Ali Baqar Najafi asked Advocate Muhammad Afaq, the petitioner, how he came to know the wife of the former prime minister did not complete her Iddat (the intervening period before the next marriage).

The lawyer said he heard in the news.

The judge remarked that the lawyer may not have heard the news attentively. He observed that objections to the divorce certificate can only be raised by family members.

With these observations, Justice Najafi dismissed the petition for being not maintainable.

The petitioner pleaded that divorce becomes effective, under the law, after being registered in the union council concerned. He said the period of Iddat starts after the documentation of divorce is submitted in the office of the relevant union council.

He alleged the legal requirements in the divorce of Maneka and Bushra Bibi were not fulfilled as admitted by Maneka in a TV programme that the Iddat was not completed.

He asked the court to seek a clarification from Maneka and to summon the record of the union council for further verification of the divorce.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2023