September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 3: The National Party, led by Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, has strongly condemned the burying alive of women in Balochistan in the name of tradition or custom.

Talking to PPI here on Wednesday, Dr Baloch alleged that all such things were happening “under the patronage of the establishment’s agents.”

Criticising some senators for supporting honour-killing, he said: “Some elements, who are in fact agents of the establishment, have been playing the role of public representatives… these puppets of the establishment are encouraging people to kill their women in the name of honour.”

Dr Hayee Baloch observed that there was no rule of the Constitution or law in the country and, therefore, incidents like honour killings could not be stopped.

“People will continue to take the law into their own hands until the rulers continued to consider themselves above the law,” he remarked, and regretted that there was a dual interpretation of the same law in the country for the upper class and the common man.”

In reply to a question about Senator Israrullah Zehri’s remarks in the Senate a few days back on burying alive of five female members of a tribe, Dr Hayee observed that parliament was working as a “rubber stamp”, and asked: “How can this parliament stop burying alive of women when it cannot resist a military operation in Balochistan in which a large number of people have been killed?”

Parliament could not reinstate the deposed judges and nor could it act to let off the so-called “missing persons” from hidden lock-ups, he argued, and asserted that parliament was working as a tool of the establishment.

The National Party leader pointed out that more than 60 per cent population of the country was faced with acute food shortage caused by inflation and price-hike.

However, he observed, the rulers, instead of providing relief to them, were still allowing increases in prices and tariffs.