LAHORE – A man has been sentenced to three-month jail and Rs 5,000 fine forcontracting second marriage without mandatory permission of first wife,according to local media.
Rabia Younas had filed a complaint against her husband Shoaib Zahid inLahore’s Cantonment Courts, pleading that he contracted second marriagewithout obtaining her consent required under section 6 of Muslim Family LawOrdinance 1961.
After the woman’s counsel produced verbal and documentary evidence to provethe offence of the respondent, the Dawn reported, Magistrate Kashif Abbashanded down three-month imprisonment to the respondent and Rs5,000 fine.
Last December, in a similar case of second marriage without first wife’spermission, a man was sentenced to three months imprisonment and fined Rs30,000 by a Rawalpindi’s civil court.
The convicted man’s wife Sajida Bibi had filed a petition in district civilcourt under Section 6 of Muslim family law, claiming that her husbandLiaqat Khan had contracted a second marriage without her permission.However, Liaqat’s lawyer presented a divorce deed and other documents inthe court as evidence and two witnesses who testified about his divorcebefore the judge.
According to the divorce deed, Liaqat had divorced Sajida on June 1, 2017,and got married again on July 9, 2017, but Sajida rejected the divorceclaim and said that Liaqat had fabricated the document. Upon this, thejudge sent Liaqat to jail for three months.
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But it was two years ago when for the first time a court in Pakistan hadsided with the woman under a 2015 family law, and followed a petition byAyesha Bibi, who said her husband, Shahzad Saqib, had wed for a second timewithout her approval.
On November 2, 2017, Judicial magistrate Ali Jawwad Naqvi announced theverdict in a Lahore lower court, ordering the man to serve a six-month jailterm and pay a fine of Rs200,000.
The court rejected the man’s argument that he did not need her permissionbecause his religion allowed him four marriages.
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a body that advises the governmenton the compatibility of laws with Islam, has often criticised the demandfor a wife’s written approval if her husband wants to remarry. But theCII’s recommendations are not legally binding.
