By Roohan Ahmed

KARACHI: Allah Bux and his wife Majida Khanum are facing threats day in and day out after they committed the ‘crime’ of exercising their lawful will – marrying a person of their choice.



The couple drew the wrath of the girl’s parents, who made life so difficult for them that they had to flee their home town Ranipur, district Khairpur in search of a safe haven in the urban center of Sindh.



Allah Bux, 25, a BBA graduate from Khairpur’s Shah Latif University fell in love with a University fellow Majida Khanum, 25, MSc in Biochemistry.



Despite the fact that the two wanted to tie the nuptial knot with the blessings of their elders, they were left with no other choice but to make the tough decision of going ahead and exchanging vows in a sessions court. Because, the girl’s family was against marrying their daughter off to Allah Bux.



Brought up in conservative and traditional Sindhi atmosphere, Allah Bux and Majida had intended to fulfill all the formalities of the process that would lead to a normal family wedding ceremony.



“I had sent my parents to Majida’s home where both the families had reached an agreement for our marriage but it now seems that the girl’s family nodded to the proposal only to buy time so that they can look for another candidate. That’s exactly what they did,” Allah Bux said, adding, ‘we had no other option but to go to a court to solemnize our marriage’.



He said his father, Head Mohrar Allah Warayo, had no objection to their wedding in the court. But, the girl’s family did have serious issues with it. “It was in this context that an influential uncle of Majida, DCO Kashmore Hafeez Ahmed, approached Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to put pressure on my father to take the girl back to her parents”.



“The SSP not only threatened my father but he was detained in a lockup for a week for refusing to hand-over her (Majida), who is now his daughter in law,” Allah Bux told TheNews.Com.Pk.



He said some unidentified men had also visited his house in Ranipur and issued threats of dire consequences to the boy’s mother and sisters if they failed to return the girl. Due to the repeated threats, the family members of the boy had to be sent to their ancestral village Waryo Wahan, 3 kilometres from Ranipur.



The couple said they had also filed a petition for protection in the Sindh High Court, Sukkur Bench and got a judgment in their favour but despite that the flow of threats continues unabated.



The Sindh High Court Sukkur Bench in its verdict had ordered the concerned police authorities to “provide legal protection to the petitioner (Mst Majida) and her husband as and when required to them”.



Majida said despite the threats Allah Bux allowed her to meet her parents. “The meeting was arranged at the residence of village elders twice where my parents kept forcing me to leave my husband but I had to refuse them because cannot imagine living a life without Allah Bux”, Majida told this website.



She said the SSP had also threatened her father-in-law with suspension if Majida did not return to her parents. “Fearing he might lose his job, the father of Allah Bux has now started to force his son to leave me”, Majida said.



The News also contacted the boy’s father, Allah Warayo Junejo, but he refused to give any statement and said he can’t say anything against his high ups in the police department. “They are my high ups and I don’t want to say anything in this regard because I have to work with them,” his father said.



Allah Bux and his wife Majida have appealed to the Sindh High Court as well as the human rights organizations to take notice of their plight.



HRCP terms issuance of threats a crime



The board member of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Akhtar Baloch, has assured full cooperation to the couple.



He said the boy and girl have entered into a legal agreement of marriage and described the act of issuing threats to the couple as crime.