Awaz Apni: At a press conference in Hyderabad, Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik stood side by side to emphasize that allegations of a first wife will not affect their wedding plans.

April 15 remains the big day; Hyderabad remains the location; Ayesha Siddiqui remains, according to the couple, a woman who Malik has never met.

In earlier statements, most of them inconsistent in their version of events, Malik has said he did marry a woman on the phone who he had never met, but that this wedding cannot be considered legal, especially because his bride wasn’t the woman she pretended to be in photos sent to him during their courtship on the phone. (Read: Shoaib Malik: Love, allegations of sex, and dhoka)



Malik said he will stay in Hyderabad to cooperate with the police. It’s not a magnaminous offer, necessarily. Malik has been ordered not to leave the country while the police examines the case filed against him by Siddiqui’s father. Malik has been accused of criminal intimidation and of cheating a married woman.

These are not nice things for me to hear about my future husband, said Mirza. She added that Malik had told her about his phone-relationship with Siddiqui, also a Hyderabad resident, before the controversy erupted.

Both Malik and Mirza emphasized that they are from respectable families and would like to concentrate on their wedding preparations rather than press conferences. They then spent a half-hour taking questions about Siddiqui.

“We are both representing our countries in many ways,” said Mirza.

“Bring this person into the open,” added Malik, “where is she, why isn’t she before a camera,” he asked, referring to Siddiqui.