June 04, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 3: The Sindh chapter of the Pasban, a welfare organisation, on Tuesday lashed out at jirga system and said the organisation was preparing to challenge in court a jirga verdict, which forced a party to marry off 15 underage girls to rival tribe to settle a dispute.

Pasban’s provincial chief Rafique Ahmed Khaskheli, and other office-bearers said at a news conference at the press club that the government should come down hard on the outdated system and enforce writ of law and supremacy of judiciary.

They condemned holding the jirga, which decided that Chakrani tribe would marry off 15 underage girls to Qalandari tribesmen and termed it a flagrant violation of human rights, which spoke volumes for the inefficiency of the government.

Khaskheli said that a parallel and illegal judicial system was unacceptable. The verdicts of the so-called jirgas was always against the poor and the oppressed segment of society, he said.

He said that feudal lords and even ministers, MNAs and MPAs were involved in the inhuman practice of forced marriages with the holy Quran or marriages of the daughters the poor. The ministers, MNAs and MPAs who believed in jirga system had no right to sit in assemblies, Khaskheli said.

He demanded that the parallel system of injustice should be disbanded and the writ of government and supremacy of judiciary should be enforced.

DEMO: Activists of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc), carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against feudalism and jirga system, staged a demonstration on Tuesday in protest against the jirga verdict.

Sparc office-bearers and president of Sindhiani Tehrik demanded that the government take serious notice of the jirga verdict and award deterrent punishment to jirga holders.

They demanded that the victim girls should be provided protection and the DPO concerned should be dismissed from service.