ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad district and sessions court on Saturday declared as inadmissible an application, pleading that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s marriage was ‘illegal’.
Civil Senior Judge Nasr Minullah Baloch reserved his decision and later announced that the plea was inadmissible. In its decision, the court further said that the matter of marriage during the period of iddat was beyond its jurisdiction.
The iddat period is a waiting period that a Muslim woman must observe on account of the death of her husband or the dissolution of the marriage.
The alleged un-Islamic nikkah of Imran and Bushra Bibi was brought to light by a petition filed by Muhammad Hanif, a citizen of Pakistan.
Mufti Saeed, the cleric who solemnised the couple’s marriage, had claimed that the initial ceremony was not conducted in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. He mentioned having a positive relationship with Imran Khan and being a part of his core committee. He stated that he was taken by Imran Khan to Lahore’s DHA to officiate the couple’s Nikkah in 2018.
Saeed stated that he officiated the marriage between Imran and Bushra on January 1, 2018, based on the assurance of the woman. Following the wedding, the couple began living together in Islamabad, he added.
However, Imran contacted him again in February 2018 and requested him to conduct the nikkah again, saying that at the time of their first nikkah, Bushra’s iddat period had not been completed as she was divorced in November 2017. Therefore, Imran deemed their first nikkah to be not in accordance with Sharia.
During today’s hearing the court inquired how the former premier’s marriage in Lahore became the jurisdiction of the Islamabad sessions court.
To this, the petitioner’s lawyer said that the “fraud” started at Bani Gala and the marriage took place in Lahore.
According to the lawyer, the process of the marriage started in Islamabad so the matter would fall under the jurisdiction of the Islamabad court.
“Imran Khan was eager to become the prime minister, so he got married during the iddat period,” he alleged.
