KARACHI: High Court moved for legislation against karo-kari
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 3: The Sindh High Court issued on Thursday notices on a writ petition seeking legislation against karo-kari and other forms of the so-called honour killing and exercise of judicial functions by assembly of local notables known as jirga.
A division bench, comprising Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, also requested Barrister Kamaluddin Azfar to assist the court as amicus curiae and advance his arguments on April 9. Advocate-General Mansoor Anwar Khan was also put on notice for the same date.
The petition has been moved by Advocate Afroze Ihsan Haq. She has cited the federal and provincial governments as respondents through the speakers of the National and provincial assemblies. The court wondered whether it could issue a direction to the speakers or even the governments for legislation on a particular matter. Barrister Azfar was asked to address the issue in his arguments.
The petitioner-lawyer says killing of men and women, particularly the latter, as karo or kari is a flagrant violation of the most fundamental right to life. It is contrary to the concept of institutional justice and allows individuals to take law into their own hands and extinguish human life without resort to any legal process or being answerable to any authority. Thousands of women have been murdered and continue to be killed on mere suspicion.
The so-called jirgas, she says, encroach upon the power of the state to dispense justice. They amount to a parallel judiciary without any legal sanction. The rise in the incidence of honour killing is so alarming that it requires to be expressly banned by a law. While jirgas might be allowed to perform social service, they should be prohibited from usurping judicial functions of the state.
The petitioner asserts that honour killings are extra-judicial murders and should be made punishable accordingly. They are repugnant to the constitutional provisions guaranteeing the right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law, security of person, inviolability of human dignity and equality of citizens. They are also violative of Islamic injunctions.
KESC STOPPED: A division bench of the Sindh High Court stayed on Thursday the recovery of a second supplementary or detection bill by the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation from an industrial unit.
Petitioner Sabir Hussain submitted through Advocate Shaukat Ali Shaikh that he had a small plastic pipe factory in Orangi Town and paid his electricity and other bills regularly. Some people introducing themselves as employees of the KESC visited his factory premises in October 2002 to check the power meter. They changed the “cover seal” of the meter, saying the original seal was broken. A few other components were also “repaired” and he was saddled with a supplementary bill of Rs37,991. He had never tampered with the meter but paid the bill in good faith, considering the payment a complete discharge of his “liability.”
However, a KESC executive engineer visited the factory again earlier last month in the petitioner’s absence and inspected the meter. He broke the seal cover of the meter, telling the factory workers that he alone was authorized to break seals. He found the meter earlier installed by the KESC staff faulty and the KESC issued the petitioner another supplementary bill.
The petitioner submitted that he was being subjected to double jeopardy in violation of the law. He was being held responsible for a faulty meter installed by the KESC staff.
The bench, which consisted of Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, issued a notice to the KESC for a date in office and stayed the recovery of the second supplementary bill.
FIR ORDERED: A division bench of the High Court of Sindh adjourned on Thursday the hearing of a constitutional petition seeking registration of FIR against the nazim of Keamari town and the nazim of Union Council 8, Gabopit, adds APP.
The bench comprised Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.
The petition was filed by Mohammed Zahid Awan who maintained that he had bought 40 acres of land from Khalid. He alleged the respondents, the nazim of Keamari town the nazim of UC 8 and councillor of Gabopit on 15-11-2002 visited the plot owned by him and ordered his contractor to stop work. They later demanded Rs500,000 for allowing the construction of boundary wall, etc.
He maintained that later the respondents demolished the wall built at a cost Rs1.5 million and when he approached the police for registration of FIR, the police refused.
The petitioner prayed to the court to order the police to register FIR against the respondents. When the matter came up, counsel for the respondents sought time to file counter-affidavit.
Allowing the request, the court put off the hearing to April 16.
