Woman moves PHC against husband for 2nd marriage sans her permission

PESHAWAR: A woman has moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against her husband seeking punishment for him for solemnizing a second marriage without her permission and consent.

Irum Hussain, a resident of Pashtun Garhi in the Pabbi tehsil of the Nowshera district filed the writ petition in the PHC.

She sought registration of the first information report against her husband for committing the crime of solemnizing a second marriage without her consent and written permission.

The woman made her husband Muhammad Naeem Khan, a resident of Peshawar, his second wife from Taxila and Muhammad Sadiq, Nikkah Registrar from Punjab as respondents in the petition.

A single bench of Justice Ikramullah Khan after the preliminary hearing into the petition issued the notice to the husband of the petitioner’s wife in the case. He was directed to submit a reply in the case before the next hearing.

Mian Suleman Shah, counsel for the petitioner, submitted before the bench that according to the Section 6 of the Family Court Act 1964, the person who marries for the second time without the first wife’s permission will be punished and fined.

He also requested the court to set aside the decisions of subordinate courts, which had not accepted the plea of the wife for the criminal action against her husband under the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance.

It is worth mentioning that in June 2019, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) also made the consent of the Arbitration Council mandatory for second marriage.

The IHC’s Justice Athar Minallah had issued the detailed verdict which stated that the approval from the Arbitration Council is obligatory for the husband despite getting a go-ahead from the first wife.

According to the 1961 Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, “the person who performs a marriage without permission will be punished and fined”.

Furthermore, the individual “will also be penalized for second marriage if the Arbitration Council does not permit it in spite of the approval by the first wife.”

The IHC also nullified the decision of an additional and sessions judge who released a person, Liaqat Ali Mir, in the same case. The aforementioned person married Dilshad Bibi in 2011.

Liaqat Ali Mir performed a second marriage in 2013 without the consent of his first wife as well as the Arbitration Council. He was handed over one-month jail sentence by an Islamabad magistrate for his offence and was fined Rs5,000.

The second case surfaced from Punjab, as the judicial magistrate Ali Jawwad Naqvi announced the verdict in a Lahore lower court, ordering the man to serve a six-month jail term and pay a fine of 200,000 rupees.