Hyderabad, April 04:Even though the clouds of doubts are shrouding over his marriage with tennis star Sania Mirza, Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik on Sunday confirmed his wedding with Indian tennis star on April 15 in Hyderabad.
Speaking to media persons outside Sania Mirza’s residence, the Pakistani cricketer said he was here for his marriage, which would take place on April 15 in the city.
However, Mr Shoaib Malik refused to comment on the marriage controversy and made it clear that his lawyer would look after the matter.
He also evaded answers to a plethora of questions of the newsmen by stating that answers to the queries would be answered by his lawyer in a statement.
Mr Malik confirmed that Sania was aware of the truth on the whole controversy and she was happy with the entire thing. He also made it clear that Ms Sania would continue to play tennis after their wedding also.
She would have freedom to play tennis as per her wishes. “I and my family will support her. She has been playing for India and would represent India only”, he clarified.
As per the statement issued by Pakistani cricketer, he wants to clarify a few wrongly reported facts about him in a section of the media and television channels in India and Pakistan. He wants to make his position clear, especially because he would marry Ms Sania Mirza in the near future.
Mr Malik pointed out that Ms Ayesha Siddiqui first started calling him on telephone when he was in Sharjah with the Pakistan cricket team in 2001.
On the phone, she introduced herself as his fan. She said that she was living in Saudi Arabia, he added. Gradually, they started speaking every day. Naturally, he wanted to meet her.
Every time he brought up the topic of meeting her personally, she used to send him a bunch of photographs. He was made to believe that the girl in the photograph was the one he was speaking to.
The truth is that till date he never met the girl in the photographs Ayesha sent him. They had become close, thanks to the telephone conversations.
In 2002, he came to Hyderabad specifically to meet Ayesha. Just before he left Pakistan, she told me she had to rush to Saudi Arabia on urgent work and her cousins — Reema and Maha apa (meaning older sister) — would take me around.
He waited in Hyderabad for five days, hoping she would return. He finally asked her family where she was and they said, that in the last year she had put on a lot of weight, because of which she didn’t want to meet him until she could shed some of that.
He told them that he had photographs of her and that she wasn’t fat, but they told him those were older photographs. Ayesha wanted to get married. She had been talking about it for some time, saying they would only meet at their shaadi.
In 2002, she told him that people in Hyderabad were talking about their relationship, and it was putting her parents in an embarrassing position. She also told him she was feeling insecure.
She wanted to have a telephone Nikah to stop the talk. He knew that his parents wouldn’t agree to a telephone Nikah. They wanted to celebrate his wedding, and he did so.
He wanted to marry Ayesha, but he was too young, he was only 20 years then.
There was a lot of pressure on him from Ayesha. He called her from a friends shop in June 2002 and he got a Nikahnama, signed it, thinking the girl he was marrying was the one in the photographs.
He wasn’t happy doing this, because he hadn’t told his parents, and was emotionally forced to do it.
A year or so later, he travelled to Hyderabad in the hope of meeting her, but once again it was the same story.
Ayesha told him on the phone that she still hadn’t lost the weight she put on so didn’t want to meet him.
He was met by Maha apa and Reema, who took him around again. In 2004, his brother-in-law travelled to Hyderabad to meet Ayesha and her family, and again the same story was repeated, so he returned without meeting Ayesha.
At that point, he was a little flustered, because none of them were able to meet her. It was he who had requested his brother-in-law to travel to India and meet Ayesha and her family as he was keen to take the relationship forward, formally.
Later that year, he was here in Hyderabad with the Pakistan cricket team. Mr M.A. Siddiqui invited the team to his house for dinner.
He was hoping to meet Ayesha there, but the girl in the photographs wasn’t at the dinner.
The same story was told to him again. He just couldn’t understand what was happening.
In a practice game, the next day, he won the man-of-the-match award. Later, he said that he was happy this was happening in my wife’s city.
Even though he hadn’t met her even once, they were constantly talking to each other over the telephone. He always wanted to support her.
That was how he felt, despite everything. “We accidentally ran into the truth about who Ayesha was.
It was the worst moment of my life. No one enjoys being made a fool of, and that was exactly how I was made to look. It happened in August 2005.
My brother-in-law got a photograph of a teacher in Saudi Arabia, who was telling people around her that she was married to me.
His nephews were studying in that school.
I was aghast when he showed me the photograph of the teacher; the woman in it was the person I called Maha apa. I immediately confronted Maha apa.
It was she who had been making a fool of me all these years, pretending to be the person whose pictures she had been sending me.
I told her I didnt ever want to speak to her again. At that point I wondered if I could ever trust anyone again”, he deplored.
He told Ayesha that he was going to release the photographs she had been mailing him to the media.
She apologized and told him that the other girl was married and that he would ruin her life if he released those pictures.
He thought about it, whosoever is in that photograph, probably doesn’t even know about all this, and it wouldn’t be fair to release those pictures.
In 2008 his lawyer sent a legal notice to Mr M.A. Siddiqui, who had been feeding the media with false and fabricated stories about him.
After that he stopped making false allegations against him, until of course, news of his marriage to Sania Mirza became public.
“Now, they are asking for a divorce.
To begin with there was no nikah because they pressurised me into it, with the intention to cheat.
In Islam, there can only be a divorce, if the nikah is valid.
I was wrongly made to believe that the pictures Ayesha had sent me were of the girl I was marrying.
I feel terrible about the mess, created by a family, that has caused great grief to my own people and the family of my bride to be.
I am confident, however, that the truth will prevail”, he claimed. (NSS}