LARKANA: The Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court has asked the district police to prepare a report on illegal Jirgas (tribal courts) and incidents of kidnapping for forced marriages and honour killing over the past two years mentioning how many such cases had been registered.

The bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar was seized with an application filed by a citizen, Noor Mohammed Bhangwar, a resident of Kandhkot. The judge converted the application into a constitutional petition and issued directives to the Larkana and Sukkur DIGs and SSPs to produce the report before him on Oct 22.

The petitioner has prayed to the court to take notice of honour killings, forced marriages and holding of Jirgas by feudal lords, who issued decrees imposing heavy fines or forcing ‘convicts’ to hand over their daughters to the rival side for settlement of disputes.

The petitioner submitted in court that his daughter Ms Naseeban was married to Gulzar Ahmed Bhangwar, who later divorced. Bhangwar, along with some other persons, kidnapped her from the house and branded her ‘Kari’, a term used for a woman of bad character liable to be killed under the custom of Karo-kari.

The petitioner apprehended that his daughter might be killed under the custom. He stated that a case was lodged with the Kandhkot police for the recovery of his daughter and arrest of the culprits. However, he stated, the police had neither recovered her nor arrested the suspects.

Saeed Bijarani, the counsel for the petitioner, contended that Karo-kari had become an organised crime as feudal lords had made it their business to mint money by encouraging people to charge women with Kari and put the suspected men and women to trial in their illegal courts. Most women suspects are eliminated under the custom.

Deputy Prosecutor-General Khadim Hussain termed the issue serious, and submitted in court that many women were approaching courts for protection.

Looking into the gravity of the situation, Justice Panhwar converted the application to a constitutional petition and asked the court office to check its record and see that how many petitions for protection had been filed by women over the past two years. The judge also directed it to find out how many of these cases pertained to marriages, dispute over property and false allegation of Karo-kari.

In its interim order, the bench asked the district and session judges within Larkana and Sukkur divisions to submit their reports regarding pending cases of Kar-kari and other such issues in which the victims were women. It asked the office to tag all identical petitions with the instant one.

The court also directed the officials in charge of Larkana and Sukkur Darul Aman to furnish their detailed reports on how many women had sought protection after being threatened with Karo-kari treatment.

The court also ordered arrest of Gulzar Bhangwar within a month and recovery of Ms Naseeban without causing any harm to her.

The case was adjourned to October 22.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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