KARACHI, Sept 16: A child rights group on Sunday said it would file contempt of court petitions against the trend of giving away girls as compensation for settling disputes.

“This trend is alarmingly high and tribal elders are committing this crime despite the fact that it is prohibited by the Chief Justice of Pakistan,” said an official of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, lately took suo motu action against a jirga conducted in Jacobabad that gave five girls as compensation to a victim’s family in its verdict. The Supreme Court issued orders to police department to take action against the jirga and rejected the bail application of PPP’s parliamentarian Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who presided over the jirga. However, Mr Bijarani is still at large.

“Jirga system could be discouraged if such influential feudal lords are arrested and punished in accordance with the law,” said Akhtar Baloch, regional manager of Sparc.

He condemned the jirga conducted in Nagar Parkar town of Thar which in its order gave away two minor girls from the accused party to the victim’s family to settle a dispute. According to reports, the two girls are of age two and eight years respectively.

Mr Baloch said jirgas were regularly held in lower parts of Sindh also. “Such unlawful hearings are conducted and promoted by influential feudal lords and tribal elders to safeguard their self interests,” he said, adding that jirga hearings continued unabated despite a ban on it imposed by the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court.

Saying that Jirga system is running parallel to Pakistan’s judiciary, Sparc termed jirga a challenge to the judiciary system.