Pakistan to send woman back to India

Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Wednesday enabled an Indian woman, who controversially married a Pakistani man, to return to her country.

The Islamabad high court ruled that Dr Uzma should be provided security to facilitate her travelling.

During a brief hearing on Wednesday, the court obtained Dr Uzma’s travel papers from her husband Mohammad Tahir Ali and handed them to her.

Dr Uzma refused to meet her husband when judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked her if she wanted to meet her spouse in the court’s chamber.

Tahir Ali had told the court that he wanted to talk to his wife separately as the Indian high commission officials might have “misled her”.

The court ordered the interior ministry to provide security to the Indian woman up to Wagah border.

The court asked Dr Uzma if she wanted to live with her husband but she refused and said her daughter was sick and she wanted to return to India.

The judge argued that the court could not force wife and husband to live with each other and that Dr Uzma was an adult and could take decisions on her own.

Dr Uzma’s visa expires on May 30, according to her lawyers and diplomats of the Indian High Commission.  

She had reportedly got engaged to Tahir Ali in Malaysia last year, where he was a taxi driver.

On May 1, she crossed over to Pakistan via Wagah border and was married to Tahir Ali in the town of Dagar in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province on May 3.

On May 5, the couple travelled to Islamabad reportedly to apply for an Indian visa for Tahir Ali in the Indian High Commission. But Uzma never came out, and has since stayed there.

On May 8, she filed a petition, stating she was drugged and forced into the marriage, and that she didn’t know Tahir Ali was already married.

Tahir Ali denied the charges and said both had agreed on marriage in Malaysia. This was the second marriage of both as they had children from other spouses.

Meanwhile, Pakistan minister for planning and development Ahsan Iqbal said that alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav would be punished according to the law and the Constitution of the country.

“All political parties are united on the issues of national security. All parliamentarians have taken oath for upholding Pakistan’s interests first,” he said.

Mr Iqbal said action had been taken against those who created rift in civil and military relations.