Daily Times

KARACHI: Divorce cases are on the rise in the city, recent data retrieved from family courts revealed.

According to the data, 15,000 ‘khula’-a procedure through which a woman can divorce her husband in Islam-cases had been registered during the current year.

“Four out of five Pakistanis believe that the divorce rate in the country is increasing,” the Gilani Research Foundation survey revealed.

According to psychiatrists, lawyers and matchmakers, divorce cases had been rising due to social media, high expectations and reduced role of elders or parents.

“The issue of divorce is shaping up as a thorny one because young generation is not taking married life as seriously as it must be taken,” said experts.

According to Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Psychiatry Department head Prof Dr Iqbal Afridi, in a study of divorce cases: domestic violence, sexual violence, mental or physical illness, terminal illness, emotional or physical obligations, constant arguing, and unrealistic expectations had come out as main reasons for annulment of a marriage.

“Family involvement creates the bond between couples,” said Afridi, adding, “nowadays young boys and girls befriend each other on social media and get married with high financial expectations.” “However, a few weeks into their marriage, they realise what they told each other on social media was not what the reality is,” he said. He said extra-marital affairs had become a big reason for the breakdown of a lot of marriages.

Khadim Hussain, a family lawyer, shared his experience that family elders had stopped playing a proactive role in marriages of their kids, and were now encouraging women to take khula, which was a big reason for increase in divorce cases.

Another expert blamed court marriages for the increasing number of divorces and the practice of young girls getting married.

“Understanding is an art and everyone is not artist,” said a female matchmaker.

She was of the view that it had become common for celebrities to divorce and remarry, which encouraged public to do the same, as a lot of them looked up to these celebrities.

According to records, 6,000 khula cases had been registered in Lahore during the current year. “As we see in rural areas, people have as many as five to six children in each family,” said a family lawyer, adding, “hence, parents want to get their children married as early as possible and early marriage is a big reason for divorces,” she said.

Published in Daily Times, November 10^th 2017.