PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday disposed of a woman’s petition, which claimed a man, who had invoked the tribal ghag custom against her in Bajaur Agency when she was two only, was creating hurdles to her marriage.

A bench consisting of Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim observed that though the law prohibiting ghag had not been extended to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the custom was against the fundamental rights of an individual enshrined in the Constitution.

It added that as petitioner Amina lived in Swabi district, she should approach the relevant police station to register a case against the people concerned.

It observed that the local police were bound by the law to provide protection to the petitioner and register her complaint against the people threatening her.

Observes law banning forced marriage practice doesn’t cover Fata

Ghag is an old custom prevalent in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Under it, a man makes a declaration in a locality that a particular girl is engaged to him and nobody else should seek her hand for marriage.

In 2013, the then provincial government had enacted the KP Elimination of the Custom of Ghag Act 2013 on the directives of the high court and declared it an offence.

Javed Ali Asghar, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client belonged to Bajaur Agency and lived in Shah Mansoor Town of Swabi.

He said when the petitioner was two, one of the respondents, Mohammad Sher, had proposed her for his son but her father, Saleem Jan, had put forward an excuse that he wanted to first complete education of his children.

The lawyer added that in 2005, Mohammad Sher again started insistence on his earlier proposal of his client’s engagement with his son, Iftikhar.

He added that the petitioner’s father turned down that proposal and that Iftikhar and Mohammad Sher then announced that the petitioner would only become the wife of Iftikhar and they would not allow anyone else to marry her.

The counsel stated that while Iftikhar had already married in 2007 and was now having four children, but he has still been obstructing marriage of the petitioner and also threatening her of dire consequences.

He said the petitioner was now around 26 and wanted her marriage of her own free will.

The lawyer said so many people had send marriage proposals for her but they did not turn up after receiving threats from Mohammad Sher and Iftikhar.

He said the brothers and sisters of the petitioners were educated and they wanted to go to Bajaur Agency for purpose of job but because of threats, they could not go there.

The counsel for Mohammad Sher and Iftikhar said the law related to ghag had so far not been extended to Fata and therefore, the petition was not maintainable.

They added that the issue had already been pending with a local jirga.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017