The Lahore High Court has held that only the first wife can dispute the second marriage of her husband if contracted without her permission.
The judgement was given by Justice Muhammad Amjad Rafiq, who quashed a first information report (FIR) against a man who was registered on an application by his brother-in-law for forming a second marriage purportedly without the required permission from his first wife.
The impugned FIR was filed by Sheikhupura police in 2013 against Ghazanfar Naveed, the petitioner seeking a restraining order, on the complaint of his first wife’s brother. Previously, the same complainant filed another FIR against him in 2011 on a similar charge, which was later dismissed by a judicial magistrate.
The complainant then filed the contested FIR on the same grounds, but with a twist: Naveed contracted a second marriage by preparing a bogus authorization letter ostensibly issued by his first wife. Since 2013, the case had been pending before a magistrate for trial.
