'I married complete stranger over phone,' admits woman doctor

A HOSPITAL doctor who married by telephone a man she had never set eyes on has failed to convince a Scots judge the marriage was a sham.

Munazza Ahmed, 26, met a car dealer over the internet, and, against her parents' wishes, went ahead and married him.

Lord Stewart, sitting at the Court of Session, was told Dr Ahmed had never met Nadeem Kazmi, either before or after the wedding and that there were suspicions the marriage was a scam by Mr Kazmi to get round immigration rules.

Dr Ahmed, of Howard Place, Edinburgh, had gone to court to try to get a decree of nullity to end the marriage.

However, in a written submission, Lord Stewart ruled he had no power to declare the marriage void as it appeared to be valid under Pakistani law. He suggested Dr Ahmed take her case to a court in Pakistan.

Maria Clarke, Dr Ahmed's counsel, said that around 2004 her client had met a man over the internet who said he was a 27-year-old manager of a car showroom in Dubai, but who gave a postal address in Karachi.

Dr Ahmed told her parents she was keen to marry him and her mother travelled to Pakistan to see if he was suitable. On her return she said he was not.

However, Dr Ahmed was not deterred and continued internet contact with Mr Kazmi.

Lord Stewart said: "Notwithstanding that her father refused permission Munazza Ahmed continued to communicate with Nadeem Kazmi. She agreed to marry him."

After the couple swapped paperwork, such as passports and driving licences, the telephone marriage took place. During the "ceremony" the bride was in Scotland and believed the groom to be in Pakistan. She also spoke to a man she assumed was a priest.

Afterwards she signed a marriage certificate and took it to the Pakistani consulate in Glasgow.

Explaining her actions, Dr Ahmed said in a statement to the court: "I was going through a lot of pressure at the time and I was feeling bad about myself. I had just failed first year of university and I was getting a lot of hassle from my parents about it.

"It was a very difficult time for me. I was vulnerable. I knew that I should not have done it but, at the time I was sincere."

Mrs Clarke admitted that an expert said telephone marriages were valid and increasingly common in Pakistan, and, according to the laws of that country, the marriage appeared to be legal.

However Mrs Clarke argued the "key question" was where the wedding had taken place.

She said if a marriage took place in two countries it had to be valid in both, and the telephone marriage did not meet the requirements of Scottish law.

But Lord Stewart said previous court rulings had established the principle that if a marriage was legal in one country it could not be overturned in another.