MIANWALI, Dec 9: DCO Zulfiqar Ali Toor has said the vani cases could not be settled by using police force or exercising arbitrary powers, but through consultations and mutual agreements. “Vani cases are appearing almost daily and now the girls and their parents have started challenging their decades-old nikah with members of rival families,” the DCO told journalists on Friday.

Vani is an inhuman practice which allows men to go scot-free after ‘marrying’ their daughters in the rival family. The custom is believed to help remove the scars of enmity between the two families.

Mr Toor said the families of the accused or convicts gave away their daughters to the victims and refusal after a decade or two would definitely open a new chapter of vendetta, which society could not afford.

He proposed that religious scholars, spiritual figures, law-enforcers, besides the stakeholders, should find out a solution to the evil through mutual consultation.

It is pertinent to mention that four girls and their parents have recently recorded with the police their statements defying the 19-year-old pledge (nikah) with members of the rival families. The rival parties, on the other hand, have moved the Lahore High Court against the resistance being shown by the girls.