PESHAWAR: Seminar calls for suo motu action: Jirga ban on honour killing reporting
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, April 29: Participants of a seminar, held here on Saturday, urged chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court to take suo motu action against members of a jirga which banned reporting of honour killing cases to police in the Upper Dir district two weeks ago.
The seminar, organised by the Aurat Foundation, also asked political parties to expel those members who had attended the jirga and asked the NWFP Local Government Commission to disqualify such union council members.
In a unanimously-adopted resolution, the participants urged provincial and Upper Dir district governments to stop the jirga from implementing the decision.
They called upon MPAs and councillors to raise the issue in their respective forums.
Speaking at the seminar, Aurat Foundation resident director Rukhshanda Naz claimed that the 2005 law dealing with honour killing had many flaws and it abetted perpetrators of the crime.
She said the law had been in place since January this year but there was no tangible improvement as far ground realities were concerned. “According to the law, cases relating to honour killing are required to be investigated by an SSP but 11 districts in the NWFP have no SSP,” she said.
She said civil organisations wanted strong reaction from political parties to check such heinous incidents.
Advocate Rashid pointed out that 95 per cent of victims of honour killings were innocent people.
“Such incidents are countless but police have also become a silent spectator,” he said. He said the low literacy rate among women was also a factor behind such incidents.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) MPA Naeema Kishwar said honour killing was forbidden in Islam and killing of an individual amounted to killing of the humanity.
She was of the opinion that independent judiciary, education and dynamic media could end the menace.
People’s Party Parliamentari-ans leader said it was beyond comprehension that the jirga issued the verdict in presence of the government. He said it was the responsibility of the government to provide justice to everyone.
Awami National Party’s Mohammad Adeel said the incident had occurred in Dir where the ruling Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had won all seats of national and provincial Assemblies, besides the slot of the district nazim. It seemed that the government supported the jirga’s move to ban reporting of honour killing cases, he said.
He called for repealing the Hudood Ordinance, saying the government had tabled a bill in 2004 but it was yet to be debated.
Jamaat-i-Islami leader Dr Mohammad Iqbal Khalil said his party condemned the jirga’s decision and promised to take up the issue with the provincial and district governments.
ANP MPA Farah Aqil Shah and provincial vice-president Zahira Khattak also spoke on the occasion.
