The Shoaib-Ayesha controversy turned murkier on Sunday with the Pakistani cricketer claiming he was emotionally forced into the 'nikahnama' with the Hyderabad girl but said the marriage was invalid as her family had cheated him and ruled out divorce.
On a surprise visit to the Hyderabad, city days before his marriage to tennis star Sania Mirza, Shoaib Malik distributed a press statement and also took a few questions from a battery of mediapersons outside Sania's house in posh Jubilee Hills. 28-year-old Shoaib will tie the knot with 23-year-old Sania on April 15 here and a reception will be held at the Taj Krishna the same day.
After days of flip-flop, Shoaib admitted to the 'nikahnama' but said it was invalid since the intention was to cheat. He said to this day he has not met the girl whose photographs were sent to him by the Siddiqui family purported to be that of Ayesha.
"Now they are asking for a divorce. To begin with there was no 'nikah' because they pressurised me into it with the intention to cheat. In Islam, there can only be a divorce if the 'nikah' is valid," he said.
Shoaib's statement comes two days after the Siddiqui family demanded that he gives an "official divorce" to 29-year-old Ayesha and appointed a lawyer to sue him in Pakistan.
"I was wrongly made to believe that the pictures Ayesha had sent me were of the girl I was marrying. I feel terrible about the mess created by a family that has caused a great grief to my own people and the family of my bride-to-be," he said.
Shoaib also said he had met Ayesha a number of times but knew her as 'Maha apa', elder sister of Ayesha and never got to actually meet the girl in the photographs sent to him. The Pakistani cricketer said it was only by accident that he got to know that Maha apa and Ayesha were the same girl.
"We accidentally ran into the truth about who Ayesha was. It was the worst moment of my life. No one enjoys being made a fool of and that was exactly how I was made to look. It happened in August 2005. My brother-in-law got a photograph of a teacher in Saudi Arabia who was telling people around her that she was married to me. His nephews were studying in that school.
"I was aghast when he showed me the photograph of the teacher. The woman in it was the person I called 'Maha apa'. I immediately confronted 'Maha apa'. It was she who had been making a full of me all these years, pretending to be the person whose pictures she had been sending me. I told her I didn't even want to speak to her again. At that point I wondered if I could ever trust anyone again."
The Pakistani cricketer began the two-page statement by saying that he wanted to clarify "wrongly reported facts" in newspapers and television channels both in India and Pakistan. "I want to make my position clear especially because I'm to wed Sania Mirza in the near future," he said. "Sania knows the truth and she is very happy," said Shoaib adding, "I'm here for my marriage. It's a legal thing and my lawyer will answer everything." In Karachi, Farooq Hassan hired by Ayesha's family to fight her case, said he will decide in a few days on what grounds he would proceed against the cricketer.
Pakistani television channels reported that Ayesha's family had sent Shoaib a legal notice but Hassan said he was not aware of this. In his statement, Shoaib said Ayesha had first started calling him when he was in Sharjah with the Pakistan cricket team in 2001.
"On the phone she introduced herself as my fan. She said she was living in Saudi Arabia. Gradually, we started speaking everyday. Naturally I wanted to meet her. Every time I brought up the topic of meeting she would send me a bunch of photographs. I was made to believe that the girl in the photograph was the one I was speaking to," he said.
Shoaib admitted that through the frequent telephonic conversations, he had become close to Ayesha. The cricketer said in 2002 he had come to Hyderabad specifically to meet Ayesha.
"Just before I left Pakistan she told me she had to rush to Saudi Arabia on urgent work and her cousin Reema and Maha apa (older sister) would take me around. I waited in Hyderabad for five days hoping she would return.
"I finally asked her family where she was and they said that in the last year, she had put on a lot of weight because of which she didn't want to meet me until she could shed some of that. I told them I have photographs of her and she was not fat but they told me those were older photographs," he said.
Shoaib, wearing blue jeans and T-shirt, looked flustered as the media shot one question after another. He waved a copy in his statement while giving instructions for distributing it to the waiting media. The cricketer said that Ayesha was keen that the two get married.
"She had been talking about it for sometime saying we would only meet at our 'shaadi' (marriage). In 2002, she told me that people in Hyderabad were talking about our relationship and it was putting her parents in an embarrassing position. She also told me she was feeling insecure. She wanted us to have a telephone 'nikah' to stop the talk. I knew my parents would not agree to a telephone 'nikah'. They wanted to celebrate my wedding and so did I," he said.
Shoaib said he too wanted to marry Ayesha. "I was 20 years then. There was a lot of pressure on me from Ayesha. I called her from a friend's shop in June 2002 and I got a 'nikahnama', signed it, thinking the girl I was marrying was then one in the photograph. I was not happy doing this because I had not told my parents and was emotionally forced to do it."
Meanwhile, the Hyderabad police on Sunday evening registered a cheating case against Shoaib on a complaint filed by the family of the girl who claims to be the Pakistani cricketer's wife.
The Banjara Hills police said they booked the case under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 420 (cheating) and 498 (A) (dowry harassment) adding that they will take up the investigation by verifying the facts of the complaint. In Karachi, Farooq Hassan, hired by Ayesha's family to fight her case, said he will decide in a few days on what grounds he would proceed against the cricketer.
Pakistani television channels reported that Ayesha's family had sent Shoaib a legal notice but Hassan said he was not aware of this. PTI
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