Divorce, petitioner in UK resopondent in Pakistan

Voyager2002

someonecool wrote: »

Thank you every one for helping me out. Its like a ray of light in so much confusion.

Well I want to stay in Pakistan as I all my family members are here. I don't intend to go to the UK as I have really bad memories of my relationship there. Well I wanted to know even if I ask my ex to drop all the charges here in Pakistan and when the UK court goes with the proceedings then would it be mandatory to attend the court for me in the UK??.

OR

can the UK court stop the proceedings in the UK and I let the Pakistani court decide the issues for me. And even so after decision has been reached by Pakistani court can my husband go to UK court later and try to reach a settlement there???

Also when I think of getting legal advice in Pakistan and ignoring all the rest then one thing comes into my mind that my ex would keep on using UK legal system to drag me during the settlement. I am dead scared of the cost involved.

If the case is decided by a court in the UK, you would not have to attend. However, if you disagree with your ex about anything then you would be foolish not to be represented at the hearing, since he could tell the judge anything he liked and there would be no-one there to contradict him. Rather than attending in person you could pay a solicitor to do so: of course this would cost money, but less than the cost of a visit to the UK!

Of course, if the two of you agree about what should happen (that the marriage is over; the children live with you in Pakistan; arrangements about money and contact) then the court could simply rubber-stamp the agreement. Sometimes there is no need for anyone to attend the court if everything has been settled on paper.

If you want the UK court to stop proceedings so that a court in Pakistan can decide everything, then that is simple. All you need to do is tell the UK court about the proceedings in Pakistan, and that will be the end of it. However, you might prefer the kind of result you could expect from a British court...

Once a case has been settled by a Pakistani court, it is extremely unlikely that a British court would interfere in something that was decided in another country.

Please note that the legal systems in England and in Scotland are different. It might help if you specified which one would be involved.

someonecool

Thank you Voyager for your reply. Well currently the case is from the England not from Scotland.

And you know Pakistani courts these days favour the mother when it comes to the baby girls. My daughter is six and have been living with me so according to the Pakistani law he cant take away my daughter and he is responsible for the maintenance as well.

I would not want the UK to decide because its an alien land for me. I cannot go there, there is no one related to me there. If I let the UK court decide he can take number of advantages by arrangement of children, and the property since he knows I cant stay there.

I just want him to leave me and my daughter in piece.
Ok one question ! how do I let the UK court know of the proceedings in Pakistan. Just send them the attested copies of the cases here in Pakistan?
Do I have to fill in and return the acknowledgement form ??

Please help!

angelil

Sorry to play devil's advocate here, but...
Is it not his daughter as well? And if I've understood correctly, you've taken your daughter out of the UK, giving him no possibility of seeing her. Assuming for a moment that he is a good person who has done nothing terrible to you (e.g. beating you up) and the marriage has just run its natural course, frankly he must be devastated to have access to his daughter removed like this. You must understand why he is trying to go through the UK courts to get some access or custody.

I agree with others who have said that you need specialist legal advice.

someonecool

Anglil! Well yes the marital problem existed because of the domestic violence. He used to beat me up on trivialities. Not even caring that his 9 months old daughter is in the cot crying to see her dad beat her mom like mad. He got arrested for it as well. But I dropped all the charges. And as far as coming over here in PAk is concerned. He brought the tickets for both of us the last time he beat me up and just sent me off to Pakistan.

It was his choice. Now the contacts and maintenance and custody is being proceeded in Pakistan. So really I am not stopping him to see his daughter. I am a Pakistani and I was married here in Pakistan through Pakistani system. And I don't trust a mad man who looses his mind and starts beating, with my daughter.


And as far as the thing is concerned as to why care about the UK law since it has no jurisdiction in my country. Well my ex has filed on the grounds that he is a habitual resident of UK and I and he lived in the UK for sometimes. So I guess this does give the jurisdiction to the UK court.

margaretclare

You would have grounds for divorcing him under our law (although I realise that's not what you want to do) because of domestic violence. He wouldn't get away with it. In addition, I don't believe an English court would disregard that violence which he has shown in the past and would take the view that you and the child are both at risk. I know several people who have been denied access to their children after divorce, because of violence, on much less evidence than you've shown.

margaretclare

I take back what I wrote earlier, about letting him do all the running. If he goes before an English divorce judge, that judge will hear only his side of the story and, obviously, he can make himself out to be whiter-than-white, the innocent party. The judge will not get to hear anything at all about his violence and domestic abuse to you and the child. So, your side of the story - which carries equal weight with his - needs to be told. You may have to swear an affidavit testifying this. You need legal advice!

Voyager2002

margaretclare wrote: »

I take back what I wrote earlier, about letting him do all the running. If he goes before an English divorce judge, that judge will hear only his side of the story and, obviously, he can make himself out to be whiter-than-white, the innocent party. The judge will not get to hear anything at all about his violence and domestic abuse to you and the child. So, your side of the story - which carries equal weight with his - needs to be told. You may have to swear an affidavit testifying this. You need legal advice!

As I said in an earlier post,if the case were to be heard in the UK then she should pay a solicitor to attend and represent her. The only exception would be if everything had been agreed in advance, all the papers signed, and the court was simply endorsing an agreement. This case does not sound like that.

Voyager2002

someonecool wrote: »

I would not want the UK to decide because its an alien land for me. I cannot go there, there is no one related to me there. If I let the UK court decide he can take number of advantages by arrangement of children, and the property since he knows I cant stay there.

I just want him to leave me and my daughter in piece.
Ok one question ! how do I let the UK court know of the proceedings in Pakistan. Just send them the attested copies of the cases here in Pakistan?
Do I have to fill in and return the acknowledgement form ??

Please help!

Courts in England are generally extremely sympathetic to women in your position. However, if you are content for your case to be decided in Pakistan, simply send the court in England the attested copies of the case in Pakistan. Probably it would help if you filled in part of the acknowledgement form: just to confirm your name and address, and to write on it that proceedings are going through in Pakistan and so you do not agree for the case to be heard in England.

Before you do that, you might consider negotiating with your ex. He will certainly have made a statement to the court that he knew not to be true (claiming that there were no proceedings in Pakistan when in fact there were), and so might fear punishment if that were found out. You could hint at this in order to encourage him to agree to terms that would be helpful to you.

And does your ex have any property or income in Pakistan? A court in Pakistan would have no power to collect money from his British salary to pay for child maintenance: a British court would probably be able to help with this. (The Child Support Agency does not get involved when children are outside the UK.)

pinkshoes

someonecool wrote: »

My husband divorced me 3 years back through a sharia court so I left UK with my daughter and came back to Pakistan to live with my parents.

Given UK Sharia courts are not recognised in the UK and have no legal standing, are you actually divorced?!?

(or is this why he is filing through the English court? But wouldn't he have to divorce you through an Islamic court in Pakistan???)

I would respond to the court in WRITING, or at least phone them to discuss it before putting it in writing, letting them know your side of the story, and asking their advice on how to proceed.

RAS

It may be that since the sharia divorce is not recognised he now finds himself needign a legal divorce so that he can re-marry?

Do you have anyone in the UK who can find out for you?