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3 Y.B. Islamic & Middle E. L. 518 (1996)
Pakistan - Abdul Waheed v. Asma Jehangir (the Saima Weheed Case)

handle is hein.journals/yislamie3 and id is 534 raw text is: Pakistan -Abdul Waheed v. Asmajehangir (the Saima Wa heed Case) * OPENING PANDORAS BOX: THE IMPACT OF THE SAIA WAHEED CASE ON THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN* * 1 THE FACTS The case of Ms Salina Waheed, an adult Muslim woman and a fourth year student at the Laihore Government College for Women, was widely publicized in the international press in the beginning of this year. Ms Wahecd had, with neither the approval nor the knowledge of her parents, married her brother's tutor at the beginining of 1996, though she continued to live with her parents after the clandestine marriage. The events could have been taken straight out of the plot of a Hindi movie drama and, perhaps inevitably, her father eventu- ally found out and strongly disapproved: he returned the nikahnama i.e. the marriage cer- tiiae to her husband's equally surprised famly and purported to cancel it. This could have been the end of the matter, had it not been for thle determination of his daughter - a short time after her father's fiat, Ms Saima Waheed, in complete defiance of her faiily's wishes, disappeared from her parent's home, onily to surface again In a women's refuige mianaged by a non-governmental organization. The father, not accepting defeat easily and clearly unwill- ing to perit his dlaughter to live eventually with her chosen husband, immediately filed crim- inal charges against the hostel, alleginig that h-is daughter had been abducted. He fuirther ar- gued that his daughter's marriage was void ab initio, since he had not given his consent. The daughter, in turn, petitioned the court for a declaration that she had been validly married and was free to live with her husband. Amidst intense media attention, the Ciecf Justice of the Lahore High Court referred the case to a larger bench of the Lahore High Court, con- sisting of Judge Ihswan-ul-Haq Chaudhury, Judge Malik Muhammad QayyuLm and Judge Khialil Ur-Rehiman Ramday. The matters ini issue were firamned as follows: PLD 1997 Lahore 301. SCasc note by Martin Lu, Lectuirer in Law and Director ofCIMEL, SOAS. 518

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