Moral police: Detain couple ‘for not carrying marriage deed’

" The families had not carried out the nikkah ceremony yet as the boy, 

Zafar, himself is a minor. Instead, the two were engaged to each other," A police official.

PASRUR: A case against five people who detained a couple, taking a hiatus on canal bank on their way back home in Pasrur, was dropped after the couple accepted their apology.

A statement Muhammad Waqas, a resident of Faqeerawali village, submitted with Pasrur Saddar police on Saturday said Muhammad Shahid, Najeebullah and Muhammad Hasan and their two other associates had apologised for their misconduct. Therefore, it said, the couple did not want to press charges against them.

The FIR against the five men was registered on Friday night for detaining Waqas and his wife at Shahid’s dera near Basiwala Pul for over four hours.

The complaint said that the men had demanded that the couple, resting by the canal bank on their way to Faqeerawali, produce their marriage deed.

They were taken to the dera for their failure to do so.

They were let go after they called a relative who brought their marriage deed.

The case was registered against them under Section 337 H-2 (Punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Section 337 H-2

Whoever does any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of other, shall be punished with imprisonment of either-description for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2012.