Andhra woman wants her Pakistani husband to stay in India

Gulzar, a native of Sialkot district in Punjab province of Pakistan, was accused of forging documents and illegally entering India in 2011. The man married Daulat Bi and was working as a painter in Nandyal.

Nandyal (Andhra Pradesh):A 35-year-old Indian woman here has appealed to authorities to let her Pakistani national husband, who was released from jail recently, live in India or she be allowed to take her five children and go along with him to Pakistan. Pakistani national Shaik Gulzar Khan alias Gulzar Massih (51) was last week released from Cherlapally Central prison near Hyderabad. This was after Gulzar's wife Daulat Bi, an Indian citizen from Nandyal district of Andhra Pradesh, had petitioned the Telangana High Court over his detention.

Gulzar, a native of Sialkot district in Punjab province of Pakistan, was accused of forging documents and illegally entering India in 2011. The man married Daulat Bi and was working as a painter in Nandyal. Already a mother of one child, Bi married Gulzar and went on to have four children with him. "My husband has to stay here. He should be given the opportunity to stay here. This is my wish. I will state this in the court when my turn comes," Bi said on Monday, adding that the family wants to be together.

She is preparing to go to Telangana High Court in Hyderabad where a hearing is scheduled on her husband's case on July 27. Bi noted that she hasn't appealed to any authority until now on her husband's case, but will do now as Hyderabad police had told her that Gulzar will be deported to Pakistan. "Hyderabad police told me that he will be sent away to Pakistan. You (Bi) have to stay here but he has to go. But I told them not to separate us. How can we live if he is taken away? I told them to allow him to stay here," said Bi.

Bi, who has never travelled overseas, came in touch with Gulzar through a misdialled call sometime before 2011 when the latter was trying to contact his friend from Hyderabad. Khan used to work in Saudi Arabia and that wrong call ended up sparking a relationship with Bi. For the next three years, Khan and Bi would talk every day.

Bi said Gulzar, a Pathan Muslim from Christian Basti in Kulurval village of Sialkot district in Pakistan, had said that three of his sisters were doctors. She said Gulzar's family members in the neighbouring country wanted her husband to be happy with his family wherever he was, whether in India, Pakistan or elsewhere. Moreover, she said that except Gulzar and her five children, she doesn't have any other family members or siblings and her parents had passed away.

Before marrying Gulzar, Bi used to work as a janitor at Rajarajeswari school in Gadivemula village of Nandyal district. After marriage, Gulzar stopped her from working there and started taking care of her and the children with his wages as a painter.

In 2019, the Hyderabad city police arrested Gulzar after charging him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Foreigners Act, and the Passport Act. A local court later granted Gulzar bail. After obtaining a Government Order from the state, Hyderabad police again took him into custody in February 2022 and detained Gulzar in Cherlapally Central prison. Bi filed a petition in the High Court challenging the GO. Bi's counsel argued that the state government had no powers to grant permission to the police to detain a person.

The High Court quashed the state government's detention order against Gulzar and released him, though the case against him will continue. Bi said Gulzar wanted to return to Pakistan as he told her that he had a big family and assets there to enable their family to have a good life. (PTI)