• Home

Pakistan Association Ladies Wing sets up ‘marriage bureau’

DUBAI — The Pakistan Association Ladies Wing has launched a ‘marriage bureau’ that has started offering its services as a matchmaker to the Pakistani community from this week.

At a meeting held recently, the Chairperson of the Pakistan Association Ladies Wing, Naheed Nafees said that the service was launched in response to high demand from parents of Pakistani children who needed help in match making. “Following our culture and tradition, most Pakistani children still marry a person chosen by their parents, and this is the reason to set a marriage bureau in Dubai,” said Naheed.

“There are several Pakistani families whose children have been born and brought up in the UAE, and somehow they cut links with their roots but still need help in finding Pakistani brides/grooms for their children. We have set up this service to help such people,” she explained.

Says Nuzhat Siddique, who is in charge of the Marriage Bureau Committee, “We already have in our database total of 80 registrations out which 60 are for girls and 20 for boys.”

Explaining the procedure, Nuzhat said that interested applicants could purchase a registration form for Dh10 from the Pakistan Association Ladies Wing office between 4-6pm on Mondays. “The form has to be filled and returned to the office where the applicants will be informed about the closest match as per the requirement of the applicant,’ she said. All applications are treated in confidence but the committee does not take any responsibility of making inquiries. “Though we have a stringent screening method before we go ahead and ask a candidate to register, we do not take any responsibility later. Both parties are required to make their inquiries about the prospective candidate,” she explained.

Bachelor Pakistanis desiring to get registered and avail of the service are required to bring along a female relation else they would not be entertained. “This is just a way to prevent any exploitation as we have a huge database of girls’ with all details of the families and the candidate including their contacts and demands and other minor details such as colour, height, education and caste,” said Nuzhat.

Giving other details, Nuzhat said that Pakistani parents in the UAE had weird demands such as having the children in proximity. “We accept applications from people on visit, but then parents — especially of girls — are extra cautious. They do not trust young men living alone in the country without their families, while they also hesitate to send their girls back to their home country. Such minor causes have led to good matches being dropped,” she added. She also said that another issue facing girls’ parents was the caste system and education of the boy. “Girls are more educated than the boys, therefore, it is difficult to find a proper match. Sometimes, the caste system also causes hindrance as people are very particular,” said Nuzhat.

“As per the needs nowadays, most young lads are smart and demand girls who are working,” she said, adding that most registered cases were from the emirate of Sharjah. The bureau also offers help to divorcees.