Divorce under duress

By SM Wajih

SUKKUR: Feudal lords, the police and the bureaucracy have forced a tribal named Balkhsher Mehr to confirm his divorce from his wife Shaista Almani.

In a statement to police on the eve of Eid, he said that he had divorced his wife because he foresaw grave threats to both the families if the marriage continued.

The feudal lords and the bureaucracy have thus managed to sabotage the process initiated by the Sukkur Bench of the Sindh High Court on a petition filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, through its lawyer Imdad Awan.

Police claim Ms Almani is in Rahim Yar Khan, and police parties had been dispatched there for her recovery and production before the Sukkur Bench.

Police say they are conducting raids to recover the young woman, a former schoolteacher, in order to get from her a statement corroborating that made by her husband, which will effectively close the matter in the High Court.

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