KARACHI, Jan 24: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) Karachi on Wednesday condemned the police in Umerkot district for keeping a 17-year-old girl, the latest victim of the karokari menace, in captivity instead of sending her to women’s shelter, which eventually led to the change in her statement and weakened the case against jirga elders.
In a statement, SPARC’s official Akhtar Hussain Baloch said, an influential feudal lord in Umerkot’s Goth Muhammed Raheem Kalro accused a youth Ali Nawaz Kalro of karokari and ordered for and presided a jirga.
In the so-called jirga he decreed it lawful to abduct Ali Nawaz’s younger sister in an armed raid and solemnised her marriage forcibly to Abdul Hakeem Kalro.
The girl’s father reported the incident to the police and filed a case against the forced-marriage. Police raided and arrested five persons including the groom, Abdul Hakeen, Ghulam Mohammed, Ghulam Sarwar and Jirga leader Mazhar Kalro. “Later, the police succumbed to Mazhar Kalro’s influential connections and released him,” said Mr Baloch. The SPARC official said the victim after being recovered was sent for medical check-up to Civil Hospital, Umerkot. There, she told the Press that she had been abducted and tortured to concede to the forced marriage. She said she felt there was a great threat to her life.
“This incident is open violation of the rights of children and the code of minor marriages. The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1929. It declares minor marriage as a criminal offence. For the purposes of the Act ‘minor’ was defined as anyone below the age of 18,” said the statement.
“The jirgas are still being held despite being declared unlawful by the superior courts and not only do they dominate in upper parts of Sindh but now this menace is spreading in the lower areas of Sindh where there was no such precedence earlier,” said Mr Baloch.
He said despite a ban on jirgas by the High Court of Sindh, more than 150 jirgas had already been conducted in the province. “It is ironic that not only the local feudal lords but also government officials and elected representatives are responsible for boosting this menace,” he said.
Mr Baloch said hundreds of decisions had been made out of court to resolve disputes and bloody rivalries among different tribes. In some extent the decision makers were successful resolving such issues through jirga system. “But sadly, children are the main victims of such ruthless verdicts,” he said, adding, “It is an open secret that jirga verdicts victimise the children.”
Mr Baloch demanded that the police immediately arrest Mazhar Kalro on the charges of presiding over an illegal jirga and abduction of a minor girl for a forced marriage that had already been pronounced illegal by the Sindh High Court. “The girl should be given due protection to save her from futher victimisation,” he said.
