Pakistan SC grants bail to 'lesbian-couple'

Islamabad, June 29: The Pakistan Supreme Court has released on bail a married couple who were jailed for three years after it emerged that one of them was a trans-sexual.

The SC yesterday suspended a judgement handed down in May by the Lahore High Court and agreed to hear an appeal by the 'husband', 31-year-old Shamile Raj, media reports quoted their lawyer as saying.

''The two-member Bench of the court headed by Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas granted bail to the couple against surety bonds of 50,000 rupees each,'' the lawyer said.

Raj married a cousin, Shehzina Tariq, in September last year in what the couple said was a bid to avoid her being sold off to pay the gambling debts of her uncle. However, the bride's relatives went to court to get the marriage dissolved. Medical tests revealed that Raj was born a woman and had undergone sex-change surgery several years earlier.

The High Court had sentenced the couple to three years imprisonment for perjury.

UNI