Shoaib gets breather after top cleric says sharia doesn’t recognise telephonic 'nikah'

A top Pakistani cleric, mufti Muhammad Naeem, has said that Islamic sharia (doctrine) does not recognise "any relationship which cannot be trusted".

He was referring to cricketer Shoaib Malik’s alleged telephonic marriage with a Hyderabad-based girl, Ayesha Siddiqui.

Naeem said that according to the sharia, the accounts of eyewitnesses are obligatory for verification of nikah (marriage).

“The acceptance of both bride and groom in front of eyewitnesses is necessary as per sharia. Telephonic testimony is not trustworthy according to the sharia and neither is there any standing about the acceptance of the groom,” The News quoted Naeem as saying.

The remarks come amidst allegations from the Siddiqui family that Shoaib Malik is already married to Ayesha, and that he has cheated her by announcing his marriage to tennis star Sania Mirza.

The controversy surrounding the star sports couple's marriage has seen several twists and turns.

Meanwhile, the Siddiqui family has served a legal notice on Malik alleging that he had married Ayesha in 2002 and must come clean on the first marriage before tying the knot with Mirza.

The family has sent a legal notice to the Maliks on grounds of defamation, harassment, character assassination, and fraud.

The legal notice comes after the cricketer's brother-in-law Imran Zafar Malik told a private television channel that they had hired counsel in New Delhi to take legal action against the Hyderabad-based Siddiqui family.

Imran Malik agreed that Shoaib Malik had got engaged to Ayesha but said the Siddiquis had shown a photograph of another girl at the time of engagement.

On Friday, the controversy took another ugly turn when the Siddiqui family came out with what it claimed was Shoaib and Ayesha’s marriage certificate.

Pakistani television channels flashed the ‘alleged’ nikahnama (marriage certificate), which apparently carried Shoaib's signature in the column for the groom and the name of Maha Siddiqui in the column for the bride.

“I have released this marriage certificate because Shoaib and his family have constantly been denying this marriage,” Ayesha told one Pakistani television channel on the telephone from Hyderabad.