A Pakistani divorce obtained by a Houston businessman without his wife's knowledge cannot be afforded recognition in Texas, the state's Supreme Court has ruled, reviving a dispute involving more than $100 million (£76 million) in community assets. The court found that five days of publication in a small local Pakistani newspaper did not provide Hira Azhar with constitutionally adequate notice.
The case, Azhar v. Choudhri, concerns Mohammad Ali Choudhri and Azhar, who married in Pakistan in 2008 before she joined him in Houston in 2010. According to the judgment, Choudhri sent her to Pakistan in 2012, ostensibly to renew her visa, and divorced her through a unilateral talaq proceeding in January 2013 without informing her. She learned about it roughly two years later.
