Shoaib gives in, signs Ayesha divorce papers

He signed the divorce papers on Wednesday morning after marathon negotiations brokered by several intermediaries throughout Tuesday night.

The divorce will clear the way for the Shoaib-Sania Mirza wedding slated for April 15 while the Siddiqui family has written to the police seeking withdrawal of the case they had filed against Shoaib alleging cheating, harassment and intimidation.

After maintaining that he had not married Ayesha and later that he had a telephone wedding but that the picture shown to him as that of Ayesha was not hers, Shoaib made a turnaround and signed the divorce papers in Sania’s house where he is staying for the past week. The papers were sent to Ayesha’s house. The compromise deal hammered out by community elders, religious and political leaders involves a payment of maintenance of
Rs 5,000 a month for the next three months — the period of ‘iddat’ or waiting that is imposed by Islamic law on a woman who has been divorced after which she can remarry.

“Justice has been done,” said Ayesha’s mother Farisa Siddiqui. “My daughter is relieved and very happy,” she said.