GUJRAT: West Yorkshire police’s initial inquiry report in the Samia Shahid case is not going to affect her murder trial in Pakistan, says a local jurist.

The report says Samia Shahid, who was killed for honour by her family in Jhelum in July last, had declared herself as single before getting her (second) marriage registered with the Leeds Registry Office in UK.

Her divorce from the first husband had also not been effective as per the British law, the report says.

The report sent to the lawyer of Samia’s family has said that Samia Shahid was married to her cousin Shakil on Feb 27, 2012, on May 1, 2014 she was divorced as per Islamic Sharia law. “The paperwork states that this was in Luton (UK), however, this was actually in Bradford and the divorce does not stand in the UK law.”

The report further says that Samia married Mukhtar Kazim in Manchester on Aug 14, 2014, but it was registered with the Leeds registry office on Sept 24, 2014.

Anne Downing of the Leeds registry office was asked specific questions by the police regarding the Samia’s marriage with Kazim upon which police came to know that Samia did not mention previous marriage or divorce.

“Since the cleric Kazmi who had issued the Islamic divorce to Samia is a Shia Muslim as was Mukhtar Kazim, Samia and her family are Sunni Muslims, this would require clarification for divorce to be accepted in Pakistan. Samia did not mention her first marriage in Pakistan and divorce status before the registrar to avoid requirement of producing her first marriage certificate as well as of divorce status.

“As Samia is deceased and as such cannot verify the letter to cleric Kazmi, cannot give any reason to the status she recorded on the marriage certificate, cannot give comment on religious divorce and her belief at the time of her second marriage whereas her second husband has never been a British national and settled in Dubai and has never been spoken on the matter however it is very possible that he was of the opinion that Samia was legitimately divorced and it is not appropriate at this time to speak him regarding this,” the report says.

The West Yorkshire police said that all the above would be the considerations for a court to give a judgment on the validity of the second marriage.

The detective sergeant who conducted the inquiry has also recommended that “with the death of Samia it is not in the public interest to pursue this inquiry as the alleged Bigamist cannot be spoken to or brought to trial should it have progressed that far and the Crown Prosecution Service has also stated that there was no case to answer as the subject of bigamy is deceased.”The case is currently under trial in a Jhelum court whereas her husband Kazim’s application to transfer the trial to Lahore has been pending with the Lahore High Court.

Chaudhary Latif Langrial, a known jurist of Gujrat, says the West Yorkshire police report will not have any implication on the case of honour killing here. He says the report cannot challenge Mukhtar Kazim’s second husband’s status as a complainant in the case.

Mr Langrial said that under the law Samia could only be charged for filing a `false statement of being single’ if she was alive and such allegations against her did not allow anybody to kill her.

Published in Dawn October 24th, 2016