ISLAMABAD: The lawyer of the complainant in Iddat case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan and his wife told the court that his client came to know about the incomplete Iddat period of his former wife as well as solemnising Nikkah during Iddat period is a crime after a citizen Muhammad Hanif file a complaint in the court in this regard.
Zahid Asif Chaudhry, lawyer of Khawar Maneka, the complainant and former husband of Bushra Bibi while arguing before Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka, said that Maneka came to know about the matter after a citizen Muhammad Hanif filed a complaint against Khan and his wife. Maneka wrote in his complaint that when he came to know that solemnising Nikkah during Iddat is a crime then he filed the complaint, he said.
Asif Chaudhry, while objecting to the court judgment produced by Imran Khan’s counsel during the trial, said that the grounds of judgments presented by defence counsel as a reference and the grounds of the Iddat case are separate.
He said that the duration of Iddat is not 39 days. He will assist the court regarding the defence statement that Section 496 is related to non-Muslims. It is not written anywhere in Section 496 that it is not for Muslims, he said.
The counsel further said that according to the apex court’s judgment produced by the defence Nikkah during Iddat is illegal.
The three judgments produced by the defence counsel are not relevant to this case, he said.
Maneka’s lawyer said that an objection was raised before the court that a civil case is being made instead of a criminal case but no appeal has been filed on behalf of both the accused regarding the civil case to date, has any appeal been filed on their behalf regarding the earlier divorce?
He said that Imran Khan and Maneka’s son have denied January 1 Nikkah. The judge told the lawyer that your witness stated that he came to know about the marriage on the second day, he said, adding that you both are followers of Fiqh Hanfia and in Hanfia the right of recourse ends after three divorces.
The judge said that the ideas of fiqh cannot be challenged in the court, they are followers of Fiqh Hanfia and according to it, divorce has taken place then for this reason Iddat case stands groundless.
He said Khan’s lawyers would prove their claim that the complainant filed the complaint under pressure. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till Saturday (today).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024