Economy of divorce: Husband kills four in Lahore, billionaire in Mumbai can lose 75pc of his wealth
Crime
Divorce is a messy affair. However, your social status makes the episode easier or difficult for you
LAHORE/MUMBAI (Raja Arsalan Khan) – Four persons were shot dead and three others injured in Lahore last week as they were returning home after attending a marriage party. Those killed were two women and two men.
Who were killed? A divorced woman along with her father, brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Who was killer? A man who targeted his ex-wife and in-laws.
What was the motive? So-called honour that keeps half of our population slave to the men.
This tragic incident illustrates how hollow value system where an independent individual can’t be digested, especially a woman who decided to leave her husband, rejecting the notion that she is a property.
Divorce is a messy affair. However, your social status makes the episode easier or difficult for you. If you are from working or middle classes, then the family and societal pressure means the wife, despite being a victim of domestic violence in the shape of physical or mental torture or both – have very little room or support to escape.
The only solid state intervention to deal the serious issue was the Violence against Women Centre established by the PML-N government in 2017 in Multan – a facility that provides refuge and assistance to the victims under one roof.
This ground-breaking initiative was supposed to expand across Punjab, but got stalled like other initiatives – mass transit and heath projects – taken by the then government, as the PTI shifted its focus to things like relocating the Taliban in the erstwhile tribal areas of Pakistan.
Certainly, you can’t provide help to the women with this mindset.
AN ESTRANGED BILLIONAIRE COUPLE
Things are different when comes to lifestyle and moral values when you are part of the elite or even the upper middle class.
You can’t mess around with your wife freely, no matter how wealthy or powerful you are.
Here is an example from across the border.
According to BBC, divorce settlement between Gautam Singhania – an Indian textile tycoon – and his wife Nawaz Modi could lead to him forfeiting 75 per cent of his $1.4 billion fortune. The couple are board members and promoter shareholders of the publicly-listed Raymond Group.
The British broadcaster says Modi is unwilling to settle for lower and the 75pc figure is still very much on the table,
"She says he has agreed to 75pc in front of numerous people – friends, mediators, lawyers and chartered accountants.
There's no going back on it," a source was quoted as saying. “Modi was insistent that an irrevocable trust should be formed where the wealth was transferred and secured for her two daughters' future.”
Singhania is reportedly keen on creating a trust where he is the sole trustee and settler, Modi has opposed this proposal.
"Most companies don't survive beyond three generations. Raymond is a fifth-generation business and Nawaz is keen that her daughters have a future in it," a source told BBC.
THE GOOD FATHER-IN-LAW
Modi has received public support from her father-in-law, veteran businessman Vijaypat Singhania, who has in the past accused his son of driving him out of his own house in 2017, leaving him with little money to survive on – allegations Singhania has previously denied.
“Three non-cognisable offences - where a warrant is needed for arrest and the court's permission is required for an investigation - have been filed against Mr Singhania at two different police stations in Mumbai”, BBC said in its report.
ELITE AND DOMESTIC ABUSE
The company's shares have begun to rebound after coming under heavy selling pressure when the dispute first became public. But the saga has thrown up uncomfortable questions about domestic abuse allegations at the highest echelons of power.
Indian society, and potential lapses in corporate governance at the country's biggest family-run conglomerates, the BBC noted.
"Violence against women is not an aberration per se in some of the richest families in India," Shobhaa De, a prominent writer and social commentator, told the BBC. "This is corporate India's best-kept secret."
De says she is cynical about how the affair will conclude, given the advantages powerful people have. "It is easy to silence scrutiny in this country," she said.
