ISLAMABAD – The PTI founder and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced for seven years each in the illegal marriage case as a local court found them guilty of matrimony before the end of the four-month period subscribed in Islam after getting divorce.
The verdict was announced by Senior Civil Judge Qudratullah Niazi, who heard the case at the Adiala jail during the past weeks, as he also slapped Rs0.5 million fine each to the convicts.
After the recording the statements of several witnesses including Khawar Maneka – the former husband of Bushra Bibi – the court reached to a conclusion that the couple had entered into marriage before the bride had completed “Iddat” – the period fixed in Islam before a woman could marry another man.
Interestingly, Bushra Bibi had admitted doing so and filed an application with the court, arguing that although they contracted marriage before the expiry of four months, the act wasn’t punishable, as she cited some rulings in her favour.
The reason behind this restriction in Islam is to enable the parents as well as the society to determine whether the future groom is pregnant so that the previous couple could take the ownership of the child.
It was Maneka who had moved the court through a petition which says the nikah administered to Bushra Bibi and the PTI chairman was “fraudulent”, as the marriage took place during the Iddat.
He also accused the PTI founding chairman of ruining his entire life and said the accused [now a convicted person] “stigmatised the complainant and his family just to achieve his unethical and immoral objects through intrusion in the complainant’s peaceful marital life”.
During the one of the hearings, the PTI chairman and Maneka exchanged harsh words as they accused each other lies and deceit, while Awn Chaudhry – a former close aide of the convict – too appeared as witness against him.
Awan Chaudhry has parted ways with the PTI and is one of the founding members of the IPP – Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party. He is a joint candidate of the IPP and PML-N from a constituency in Lahore, which mostly covers the posh localities.
The other most important witness was Mufti Saeed – who performed had the first nikah – which, according to him, was later repeated over the Iddat controversy.
