SWABI, April 18: There is an urgent need to eradicate the Pukhtun tradition of Swara and people, especially jirga members and ulema, must discourage the un-Islamic custom, speakers at a seminar said.

The seminar held here on Tuesday was attended by jirga members, religious scholars, lawyers, journalists and representatives of local governments.

The event was organised by an Islamabad-based NGO.

A jirga member, Rafiq Khan, said that the jirga members had pledged among themselves that they would never settle a dispute through the unjust Swara custom. “We promised that we will not settle any dispute on the basis of Swara”, he declared.

“Once there was a demand for 14 Swaras in a dispute but we settled it by imposing a fine amounting to Rs20 million on offenders. Swara was diplomatically excluded from the settlement.”

Other jirga members attributed the deep roots of the custom on illiteracy and said that education would help eliminate such unjust traditions. They praised the role of NGOs in creating public awareness.

Prof Izhar said that Swara was against the norms of Islam and it should be discouraged, adding that everybody had a role to play in discouraging the custom.

Maulana Habibul Akbar said that the government and the judiciary were responsible for uprooting the practice from the Pukhtun society.

District councillor Shahfqat Rani said that the local government would pass a resolution against the custom of Swara in the next council meeting.

She said that vicitimising sisters or daughters for settling disputes of any kind was unjust as it encouraged substitution instead of awarding punishment to the real culprit.

Several nazims called for launching a campaign against Swara in rural areas as it was mostly people from these areas that first killed each other and then settled their disputes through the custom.