Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: After former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s statement about challenging Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan’s candidacy over allegations that he fathered a child out of wedlock, Federal Shariat Court (FSC) jurisconsult Dr Aslam Khaki released statement on Tuesday clarifying that no child could ever be deemed illegitimate under Islamic jurisprudence.

Rather, the father of the child born out of wedlock would be held illegitimate, according to Islamic sharia, he said. “The sin has been committed by the father and not by the child.”

The statement said unsubstantial allegations of adultery were punishable under the sharia. “Accusing someone of Zina without production of four witnesses is un-Islamic. The accuser may face the offence of Qazf.”

Dr Khaki urged the public to be careful in making statements that could stigmatise a child. “The allegation of adultery is a very sensitive matter as there may be possibility of a secret Nikah which may not be acceptable under the European law but may be allowed under the sharia,” the statement said. Clarifying the issue of a secret nikah while speaking to Daily Times, the FSC jurisconsult said that marriage was a contract between two adults and it could be verbal as well. “In earlier times, nikah was always verbal,” he said, adding that such a contract could be without two witnesses as well, according to Fiqh-e-Jaffaria and Fiqh-e-Imam Malik.

The difference between such a secret marriage and adultery would be that the former entailed all the rights and responsibilities of a marital contract, he said.

Regarding DNA evidence, he said that it was not acceptable under Islamic jurisprudence.

Commenting on media reports Imran Khan’s alleged extramartial affair with Sita White, he said declaring Tyrian Jade, White’s daughter, as Khan’s illegitimate child was was un-Islamic and unethical.

Without the evidence of adultery, as provided in Islamic jurisprudence, no one could blame Imran Khan of illicit relations with Sita White.

Under Islamic law, Khan could get a Qazf case registered against those raising such allegations.

A Los Angeles court in the US had ruled that Imran Khan was the legal father of Tyrian, then four-year-old southern California girl.

Sita White, who lived in Beverly Hills, allegedly had a relationship with Khan in 1987-88 and, when they met again in Los Angeles on October 2, 1991, she told him she wanted to have his baby, her attorney Gloria Allred had told the court.

Imran Khan, however, did not own the child. Tyrian Jade was born on June 15, 1992, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Published in Daily Times, June 13^th 2018.