Pak courts still mired in malaise of moralistic judgments when it comes to women

Pakistan Supreme Court has expressed disappointment over what it has called a 'subjective sense of morality' shown by a Lahore High Court (LHC) judge.

The LHC judge had passed an order which overshadowed his responsibility of protecting a citizen's constitutional right to liberty.

According to Dawn News, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa of the Supreme Court said in a verdict that 'the court has been saddened by the fact that through the impugned order a judge of a high court had allowed his responsibility of protecting a citizen's constitutional right to liberty to be overshadowed by his own subjective sense of morality'.

The controversy began when the LHC judge disposed of a habeas corpus petition on July 4 and ordered that Naseem Akhtar, 28, lived with her father so that the veracity of two marriages could be adjudged by the relevant court, the report said.

The dispute revolves around claims by Mohammad Imran Khan and Mohammad Tariq that they married with the same woman.

Khan cited May 14 as the date when he married Akhtar whereas Tariq said he married on Dec 25 last year and that the marriage was still intact - a claim acknowledged by Akhtar and her father Ali Mohammad.

Akhtar pleaded that she was not in confinement or restrained while living with her father and wanted to live with him.

She had filed on June 26 a jactitation of marriage suit against Khan and the case was pending with a family court in Sillanwali, Sargodha district.

Akhtar denied that she had married Khan and pleaded that he should be restrained 'from being her husband'.

But the high court did not accept the plea, saying the contention was untenable and the court could not allow a person to live an 'immoral life'.

She would stay in the Darul Aman till the time her suit for jactitation of marriage was decided, the high court judge ruled in his chambers.

The Supreme Court converted the petition into an appeal and ordered that Akhtar be set free and live with her father.

The apex court asked the registrar of the LHC to bring the verdict to the notice of the judge-in-chamber.