Arrest warrants for ‘she’ couple
LAHORE, May 9: In the first of its kind case, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for a couple after a medical examination found that the ‘husband’ was a woman.
The court issued the warrant after a five-man medical board, headed by Services Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Ejaz Bhatti, told the court that petitioner Shumail Raj was a woman.
Raj filed the petition in the court of Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, alleging that ‘he’ and Shahzina Tariq had contracted marriage with free will, but police and Ms Tariq’s relatives had been harassing ‘him’.
After a medical report, the court directed Faisalabad police to arrest the ‘couple’ and produce them on the next of hearing on May 16. The judge also issued a notice to the petitioner as to why not ‘he’ be convicted under Section 193 of the Pakistan Penal Code for submitting a false affidavit to the court.
Raj stated in the petition ‘he’ and Ms Tariq had married according to the Muslim laws with their free will on Sept 9, 2006. They said they had filed a petition before the court of an additional district and sessions judge when the father of the ‘bride’ with the connivance of Madina Town SP Raja Riaz started harassing them.
They alleged the SP summoned the petitioners and hurled threats of consequences violating direction of the additional district and sessions judge. They said they had been “living happily as husband and wife” since their marriage. They prayed to the court the police officials be directed not to harass them.
The “bride’s” father, Tariq, turned the tables on to the petitioner when he told the court that Raj was a woman and “her real name is Nazia”. He also said Raj had a medical operation in which “she had got her breast and uterus removed”.
The court on Tuesday directed the Services Hospital medical superintendent to set up a medical board to examine Raj. The board examined Raj and submitted the report on Wednesday.
The report submitted to the court says Raj got ‘his’ breast and uterus removed through an operation by a Faisalabad-based doctor.
A member of the board told Dawn quoting Raj 16 years ago ‘his’ voice experienced changes.
Raj said the doctor told ‘him’ that ‘he’ was becoming a man, and for that ‘he’ required a surgery. The doctor performed two surgeries on Raj to remove ‘her’ breasts and uterus, the board member added while quoting Shumail. However, Raj conceded to the board that he had not consummated the marriage.
The board member said: “I cannot comment whether the couple is lesbian. All medical evidence supports that Raj is a woman except for hair on ‘his’ face and ‘his man like’ voice.” The report also suggested some more tests for confirmation.
When contacted, Faisalabad Jhang Bazaar SHO Mian Khalid said Raj and Ms Tariq were cousins. He said he had got confirmation that there had been changes in the physical condition of Raj 15 or 16 years ago, and ‘he’ was still a woman, although ‘he’ had adopted all man-like fashion. He claimed they were trying to arrest the couple to produce them in the court on May 16.
On Wednesday, when the medical report was submitted to the court, Raj was not present there, and Ms Tariq’s father prayed for cancellation of the marriage, saying religion does not allow marriage of two females.The SHO and the Medina Town SP both denied harassment charges.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/10/2007
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