A majority of the marriage bureaus are reportedly using unfair tactics to extract money from parents who are having problems in finding suitable matches for their children due to financial and social constraints.
Citizens demanded the government to take a stern action against such marriage bureaus in the twin cities which were openly cheating people to earn money.
Ayesha Qasim, mother of a girl, told APP that people were being cheated in the name of this social service and these marriage bureaus only worked to make money.
“I paid a lot of money to these so-called marriage bureaus, but we never got any response from them. These bureaus would always tell you that these matters take time,” she said.
Another citizen, Asim Qureshi said that these bureaus approached their customers with their well phrased ads in different newspapers.
“They ask customers to fill out registration forms, take large amounts of money and never respond. They don’t even bother to pick up your phone when you call them after paying the money,” he added.
The marriage bureaus operating in Islamabad charge around Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 for local matches, Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for inter-city matches and Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 for matches with overseas Pakistanis.
“Middle class and overseas Pakistanis usually fall prey to such marriage bureaus. These ingenious matchmakers exploit people,” lamented a victim of a matchmaker.
“I submitted Rs 5,000 registration fee with a marriage bureau and they promised to find an excellent match for my daughter. After taking the money, they even refused to recognise me. That’s quite unfair,” said Mrs Mukhtar.
The marriage bureaus’ owners claimed that it costs them ‘a lot to find a match’.
A matchmaker said she only charged money after looking at the financial status of her customers.
These bureaus were being run without any registration with the government.