PESHAWAR, March 6: Lack of proper legislation to check trafficking of women between the provinces and lack of public sensitisation to the issue are the main causes of the plight of women sold in the garb of different practices in the NWFP, speakers said at a workshop here on Tuesday.

The workshop organised by the Noor Education Trust was aimed at building an ‘alliance to combat women trafficking’ and end violence against women.

The organisation’s Project Manager, Akbar Ali Shah, said district advisory groups would be formed to increase awareness in vulnerable areas of Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and Mardan and mobilise the community for action against groups involved in women trafficking.

The participants of the workshop were of the view that the menace was on the rise because of lack of proper laws to tackle internal trafficking of women.

Such cases were not reported to the police as women were sold mostly in the name of marriage through ‘match makers’ and taken to Punjab and other provinces, said the participants representing the media, lawyers, police, non-governmental organisations and local government who would work as DAG members.

The Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance 2002 was also ineffective in addressing the issue, they said.

The ordinance should be amended to check the buying of women in the name of different traditions like ‘bride price’ or sar paisa and walwar, they said.

Badrashi Union Council Naib Nazim Naila Naz said women were sold like a commodity at some places in the name of traditions but the main reason behind the trafficking was poverty.

Nigar Rauf, a tehsil councillor from Nowshera, said daughters were considered a burden by poor parents and married to people whom they hardly knew, which landed them in problems like women trafficking and domestic violence.

An NGO worker said cases of women trafficking were not reported to police at the grass-roots level as there was social acceptability of the traditions.

Police officials said they were helpless in registering cases against those involved in women trafficking as there was no relevant law to deal with the matter.

Aurat Foundation’s Resident Director Rukhshanda Naz mentioned the national and international laws under which the trafficking of women was illegal. She regretted that the law-enforcement agencies like the Federal Investigation Agency and police were unable to check the menace.

There should be legislation to check trafficking of women to other provinces and countries for labour, prostitution and sale of girls to older men in the name of marriage and other such purposes against their will, she said. She said an anti-trafficking unit set up last year had not held any meeting.