FATWA ISSUED AGAINST MALIK

Former Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik had another googly bowled at him when a fatwa was issued on Tuesday against him by a Muslim cleric in the wake of Hyderabadi girl Ayesha Siddiqui accusing him of marrying and then abandoning her.

The Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque in Kolkata Syed Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati issued the diktat saying Shoaib and Ayesha were now man and wife as they had married over telephone.

'Nikah has been conducted over the telephone. They are now husband and wife according to Muslim law,' Hindustan Times quoted the Imam, known for issuing edicts on burning issues, as saying.

'If Shoaib accepts the nikah, no problem. But if he denies, he will be out of the Muslim society,' he said.

Shoaib is now in Hyderabad and plans to marry tennis star Sania Mirza on April 15.

With Ayesha, who claims to be Shoaib's first wife, launching a legal fight to prove her claim and the police not ruling out the Pakistani cricketer's arrest, it is learnt the Mirza and Malik families are seriously considering delaying the marriage.