ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani took suo motu notice on Wednesday of a reported jirga and ordered the Inspector General of Sindh Police to appear before the court on Thursday in Karachi.

The notice was taken after an editorial appearing in a newspaper said a jirga was held in Wazirabad town of Sindh’s Shikarpur district and a decision was taken in an alleged karo-kari case.

The editorial deplored that two women of the Mahar tribe were allegedly killed by their parents for having ‘illicit relations’ with men of the Jagirani tribe. The Jagiranis were fined Rs 2.4 million for ‘kidnapping’ the women and ‘having illicit relations’ with them.

The jirga was held apparently to settle a potentially explosive tribal dispute, but while both parties accepted its decisions no one was penalised for murdering the women. Even more shockingly, an MNA, the PML-F’s Ghous Bakhsh Mahar, presided over the jirga.

The chief justice held that if true the newspaper item had prima facie revealed violation of the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 9 and Protection of Women (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2006.

The court asked the inspector-general of Sindh police to personally appear before the Supreme Court bench in Karachi on Thursday and explain the incident.