Mohsin Abbas Haider addresses domestic violence allegations against him
Actor and singer Mohsin Abbas Haider has denied the domestic abuse allegations against him in a press conference last night and challenges his wife, Fatema Sohail, to come forward with evidence.
Haider, who shared he'll be keeping his hand on the Holy Quran throughout, started the talk saying he was "prepared for this day" because he had allegedly received these threats often. "She threatened to ruin my career and bring me to the streets. I was just waiting for it to happen."
Read: Actor Mohsin Abbas Haider accused of domestic abuse by wife Fatema
Calling his marriage with Fatema "toxic", he added, "I'm old-fashioned, we don't talk about a woman's respect and honour publicly and in the media but now remaining silent isn't an option."
"This marriage happened in the heat of the moment, this never should have happened. When my mother passed away, Fatema came all the way from Lahore to Faisalabad to condole. I thought she's someone who's made all this effort to come see me, she will stick with me through my difficult times.
We realised within a few months mutually that this marriage was a mistake and we both confided in each other about this. A mere few days into the union, her lies started to come out, in the form of messages and photos."
Addressing the photographs shared on social media, Mohsin alleged that the bruises and scratches are from when she fell down the stairs in 2018 and took those pictures to show him while he was travelling.
"If she was getting beaten up by me for four years, why are there no medical reports? I've never said she's a bad woman, we just didn't have any compatibility," he stated. He repeatedly challenged her to bring medical evidence of her injuries or go to the police station.
He also claimed that Fatema has been dodging the police and that he was coming from the police station after giving his statement. Fatema says Mohsin has lied about recording his statement with the police. She says she spoke to the SHO who told her there hadn't been a statement, and has said that the audio recordings of her call with the SHO are available.
Talking about the recent incident, when Fatema says he physically assaulted her again, Abbas said: "We've only probably lived together for one year and we had been separated for the last 5-6 months. 2-4 days ago, at 2:32 am, my doorbell starts ringing constantly with a woman outside screaming. I didn't open the gate, in fear of creating an even bigger scene. She made her cab driver jump inside my gate, open the door from inside and she started banging on the windows."
He said she demanded he transfer the property he was living in at the time to her to which he agreed and left the premises.
Talking about Fatema's claim that he ran away from the responsibilities he owes his son, he says he gave her alimony for months and that he has receipts of the transactions.
"I could've said after the separation that he's her responsibility, she should work and take care of her child but I didn't."
He also said that not every crying woman is honest and that women use something called the "aurat card".
"Why do we always play the woman card? Not every wailing woman can be right; why can't men be wronged? Go see the social experiments white people do, when a man and woman fight on the street, and the woman slaps the guy, no one bats an eye, people laugh and make videos. But if a man shoves a woman, people stop and start fighting with him."
The Na Maloom Afraad actor in the end said that Fatema is doing this in reaction to him wanting to get married again, which he said is his religious right and Pakistan's constitution gives him permission to.
When questioned about one very crass comment from his Facebook on Fatema's post, he says she had his Facebook password, someone is attempting to hack his Instagram and that he does not have access to his social media accounts at the moment.