A Pakistani Fairy Tale

In 1983, a ‘princess’ married a ‘woodcutter’. She was 24 and he, 35. Most of her family refused to attend the wedding in Lahore. Her father’s family, the Pirs of Shergarh, were Syeds, proud descendants of the Prophet of Islam. Her mother’s family, the Alis, were Pakistan’s biggest industrialists. Whereas, his family were Punjabi Khatris, Hindu converts to Islam a mere five generations ago, “And he certainly wasn’t the highest bidder”, says Jugnu Mohsin, while Najam Sethi grins wickedly.

Jugnu Mohsin had already gone way beyond the prescribed path for khandani South Asian girls: Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore; A Levels from Moreton Hall, Shropshire (without a single Shropshire lad allowed near); Law at Cambridge and on to the Bar at Gray’s Inn, London, with a flat just round the corner from Sylvia Plath’s at Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill…