The Lahore High Court on Wednesday allowed a woman to go home with her husband after she testified that she had chosen to marry him, though the couple had to evade angry family members outside the courtroom.
Zahida Parveen, 22, from Shakargarh, was produced in court by a bailiff after her mother Khurshid Bibi moved a petition claiming that her daughter had been kidnapped by a man named Yousaf and was being detained against her will. Yousaf was also present in the court.
Justice Sardar Tariq Masood asked Parveen if her mother’s allegations were true. She rejected them, saying that she had wed Yousaf by her own free will and was living with him happily. She said that she did not wish to go back and live with her parents.
The investigation officer in the case told the court that Parveen used to work as a maid and Yousaf as a driver at a house in Samanabad. He said that the couple had married by choice.
After recording Parveen’s statement, the judge dismissed her mother’s petition and let her leave with her husband.
As she left the courtroom, her family members tried to grab Parveen and beat her up, but the couple ran away from the scene. Her mother then fainted.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2013.