DADU, March 19: The government is not interested in repealing the Hudood Ordinance and enacting laws against Karo-kari and jirga system.

This was said by the provincial coordinator, Aurat Foundation, Mahar Taj, at a seminar on "Role of Women in Local Bodies System" held at district council hall here on Friday.

She said that in upper Sindh - including Shikarpur, Larkana, Ghotki, Sukkur, and Jacobabad districts - men killed women on the pretext of Karo-kari to settle their personal scores.

She said that feudal lords and tribal chieftains of the areas encouraged Karo-kari killings but the federal and provincial governments had not taken any action against them.

Ms Taj said that so-called honour killings of women had increased in other parts of the country also. She said that feudal lords of Sindh encouraged marriages of minor girls with aged men through jirgas but the government had not made any effort to stop the uncivilised practice.

She said that hundreds of women and girls were victimized in the name of the Hudood laws hence government must repeal the laws. The NGO's provincial coordinator for information service, Mohammad Aslam Brohi, said that the women elected representatives in district, taluka and union councils had been deprived of their rights.

The district coordinator of the NGO, Abdul Waheed Kalhoro, said that rate of killing of women on the pretext of Karo-kari was increasing in different parts of Dadu due to low literacy rate.

He said that women should participate in the by-elections of local bodies to achieve their rights. Women councillors, Soni, Sadori, Shahnaz Soomro and others also spoke on the occasion.