Hyderabad, April 04: The celebrity wedding can’t get more controversial. With just two weeks to go for the marriage of Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik, the latter has got entangled in a legal battle marked by mudslinging on TV channels.
However, Sania’s family stood unfazed and are sticking to their plans to perform the nikah in Hyderabad on April 15.
Giving a new twist to the episode, Malik landed at the Banjara Hills residence of Sania late last night, reportedly to broker peace with his “first wife”, Ayesha Siddiqui, so that his marriage with the tennis star takes place without any hurdles.
Shoaib was spotted only once in the balcony of Sania’s residence and mostly remained indoors discussing marriage plans and at the same time trying to sort out the issue with Ayesha.
Express learnt that former cricketer Chamundeswarinath stepped in to find an amicable solution to the Shoaib-Ayesha affair through backchannel diplomacy even as the two sides engaged lawyers to fight it out in court in case a legal battle becomes inevitable. Ayesha’s family claimed to have a sent a defamation notice to Shoaib but his lawyer denied having received it. “Shoaib cannot marry Sania without divorcing Ayesha. We have prima facie evidence to prove that the marriage did take place,” Pakistani lawyer Farooq Hussain, said on behalf of Ayesha.
Interestingly, Shoaib has hired a Delhi-based lawyer, Ramesh Gupta, to plead his case. “There is no hurdle for the marriage. Shoaib did sign the nikahnama after he was sent a picture of a girl. But she was not Ayesha. Even assuming that the marriage did take place, Islamic law does not prevent Shoaib from marrying again,” Gupta argued, as the two lawyers slugged it out on TV.
IT WILL BE IN HYDERABAD
As the controversy over Shoaib’s first marriage turned murky, channels went to town saying the marriage may not happen in Hyderabad and it could be in Dubai, a neutral venue. But sources in the know of things denied the marriage was being shifted out of Sania’s home town. Invites are getting ready and the venue could be one of the five star hotels in the city, the sources said.
TRADERS CANCEL T SHIRTS
Pakistani traders have cancelled orders for the import of five lakh T-shirts with portraits of Shoaib Malik and Sania because of fears the wedding may be delayed, agencies reported quoting a leading businessman. Karachi traders action committee chairman Siddique Memon said orders placed with T-shirt manufacturers in China and Thailand had been cancelled due to fears that the high-profile wedding could be delayed because of legal tangles.
SANIA TWEETS
Her prospective groom is facing allegations of marrying and dumping a woman, but Sania Mirza backed Shoaib Malik on the matter, saying she and her family have known the truth all along.
Although she did not mention Shoaib directly, Sania’s latest Twitter feed clearly supported her husband-to-be.
“Me and my family know what the truth is, we’ve known it all along and we have confidence in god’s justice,” Sania’s tweet(twitter.com/MirzaSania) said.
Getting ready for the “biggest day” of her life, Sania said she never thought she would have to deal with so many things apart from the regular pre-wedding jitters.
“Too much going on, never in my life thought that I’d had to worry about anything of this sort, rather than my mehendi!” she tweeted on April 2.“Leaves me with no choice but to laugh. I am pretty sure these are not the pre-wedding jitters or butterflies in the stomach my married cousins were talking about!” another tweet on the same day said. Easing worries for the Mirza family, the Shiv Sena did u-turn on its opposition to the marriage, with party boss Uddhav Thackeray saying the tennis star could marry whom she pleased.
This was a sharp departure from what his father Bal Thackeray wrote in the party mouthpiece Saamna yesterday, criticising Sania for marrying a Pakistan and raking up things such as her tight clothes and a broken engagement.
–Agencies–