A MAN murdered in a hotel room in Pakistan thought he was going to enjoy a few romantic hours with his wife, a court heard.

Khurrum Mukhtar, 21, had been told by Yasira Pervez to keep the liaison a secret after she travelled from her home in Lancashire to be with him, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Pervez, 24, had also allegedly told him she was bringing official documents he needed to get a visa and join her in England.

But, the court heard, Pervez, who went through an arranged marriage with Mr Mukhtar two years earlier, had set up the meeting so that she and her English lover Ian Priddle, 46, could get rid of the husband.

The court was told that Mr Mukhtar had got new clothes to wear for the meeting at the Comfort Inn in Rawalpindi, 30 miles from the village in the Punjab where he lived with his widowed mother.

And despite being told to keep it secret, he had confided in a cousin about the meeting.

His cousin Aaran Zeb, who travelled with him for part of the journey, said he had been 'happy and smiling' on the trip, though he had not at first told him where he was going.

Mr Zeb told the jury that during the taxi ride Mr Mukhtar's mobile phone had rung and he had overheard part of a conversation in which he heard 'a girl' asking who was with him.

He said that after the call his cousin asked him to leave the vehicle. He asked him who had been on the phone and was eventually told 'my wife'.

Asked if any explanation had been given, he said: "He told me his wife had come from England and she had not told anybody. He said he hadn't told anybody either."

The court was told that Mr Mukhtar had booked room 109 at the Comfort Inn for a period of three to four hours.

But less than half-an-hour after he was joined at the hotel by a man and woman alleged to have been his wife and lover Priddle, he was found dying from stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

He was discovered bleeding heavily and gasping for breath on the double bed in the room.

He was taken to hospital by car but died from his injuries shortly afterwards.

Pervez, of Pendle Street, Accrington, and divorcee Priddle of Jubilee Road in Haslingden, Rossendale, both plead not guilty to murder.

The court has heard that the pair concocted an alibi to cover up what they had done, but Pervez later admitted she had not told the truth and blamed Priddle for the killing when it became obvious her story would not hold up.

The pair had met when they began working together after she had returned to England following her wedding in 2004.

On Christmas Eve 2006 they travelled secretly to Pakistan where five days later the meeting with Mr Mukhtar was set up.

They later insisted to police that the trip had been a holiday, but Mr Peter Wright, QC, prosecuting, said the Crown's case was that they had travelled to Pakistan with the sole intention of killing Mr Mukhtar.

Proceeding