First look: Chaos reigns at Sania-Shoaib reception

Uninvited guests and security mismanagement marred Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik's reception in Sialkot, forcing the hassled newly-weds to leave the function before it was over.

The reception was hosted by Malik and turned out to be a headache for his family since many uninvited guests showed up to take part in the celebrations at the Sialkot hockey ground.

Added to this, heavy security arrangements by the Punjab Police and the insistence of the local administration on enforcing the energy conservation measures also led to the problems during the function.

A private channel Duniya reported that tennis star Sania's family, which had arrived from India for the celebrations, left for Lahore early as they were upset at the mismanagement at the function.

Eyewitnesses at the function said Shoaib and Sania, who were sitting on the stage and greeting the guests, also left before the function ended.

"There is no reason known why they left but apparently there were problems when the younger brother-in-law of Malik, Adnan was stopped at the main entrance by security guards from entering the function," one eyewitness said.

Eyewitnesses said hundreds of people showed up for the reception, many of whom were not invited and some entered without invitation cards.

"This led to a huge rush at the main entrance and it made life difficult for the security personnel to control the situation," he said.

He said there were reports that invitation cards for the wedding reception had been sold by some people for between Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000.

To make matters worse, the power corporation officials insisted that no extra lighting would be allowed at the reception.

Since reaching Pakistan, Shoaib and Sania have had a torrid time.

On Sunday, newspapers reported that the couple had demanded that the media interested in covering their wedding reception in Sialkot and Walima reception in Lahore on April 27 would have to buy rights for this purpose.

Reports said that Sania's mother had made it clear that only those media people would be allowed to cover the functions or interview the couple who bought the rights.

"Shoaib was upset at the heavy presence of the media in the five star hotel in Lahore and warned the hotel management he would leave if the media came on the floor he and his family members were staying on," one source said.

Image: Shoaib Malik (third from left) and Sania Mirza (fourth from left) are flanked by family members during the Walima in Sialkot on Sunday

Photograph: Mohammed Abdul Haq