Mumtaz Khalid from Bahawalnagar and Asha Devi Patel from Thana, have become husband and wife after their Nikah was performed on phone in Lahore.
LAHORE: Against all odds, two real-life lovers from India and Pakistan, Mumtaz Khalid from Bahawalnagar and Asha Devi Patel from Thana, have become husband and wife after their Nikah was performed on phone in Lahore, from where their 36 month long love story took off.
According to a beaming Mumtaz Khalid, a trader belonging to a small village of district Bahawalnagar’s Tehsil Chishtiyan and a resident of Gulberg in Lahore, it all started in January 2003 on the internet.
“I was chatting on the net when I came across Asha. We exchanged greetings and had a brief chat that became frequent and after a couple of months we were both convinced that we were made for each other.” An excited Mumtaz said it was not love at first sight but it rather happened gradually.
“At first her family was totally against all this. Her father Vilas Patel, a former employee of the Tata steel Mills and other members of her family were against this relation. I am a Pakistani and moreover, I am a Muslim while they are a reputed Indian family. My family had the same kind of reservations as Asha’s family. But with time, our devotion and sincerity impressed the members of both the families who finally bowed to the power of love,” Mumtaz said.
Mumtaz says that Asha embraced Islam four months back and adopted the name Ayesha and then with the blessings of both the families, they married. “On Friday last (June 9), our families got together in their respective countries on phone and our Nikkah was performed in Lahore in the presence of my father and siblings.”
Both have been struggling to obtain visa for any of the two countries. Mumtaz said that just 15 days back, they had a very memorable meeting on the Wagah border for five minutes.
Approached for comments, an interior ministry official dealing with citizenship at the ministry of interior in Islamabad, said the Foreign Office had no objection to issuing Ayesha a visa to Pakistan provided the security agencies agree to the same.
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