LARKANA, Nov 30: Land grabbing and old feuds are main factors behind rampant killing of women in Sindh.

This view was expressed here on Saturday by participants of a one-day seminar on Karo-kari. The seminar was organized by the Shirkatgah.

The speakers were unanimous in stressing the need for early legislation to eliminate murders in the name of honour and tradition.

Calling on the legislators to take up the matter on the floor of the assemblies, the participants of the seminar said murder, no matter how noble the purported motive, should be treated as murder.

Demanding early legislation in this regard, they said the traditional arbitration system, the Jirga, used to settle matters related with Karo-kari, was faulty.

The participants of the seminar also criticized the unwritten code of conduct of the Jirgas.

Barring the accused, they said, to defend themselves was a major lacuna, which cast doubts on the authenticity of the jirga decision.

The alleged victims of Karo-kari were more often punished unheard, which was not condoned by Islam, they said and added Islam prescribed a divorce in case the adultery accused was married.

A section of the participants of the seminar was convinced charges in 40 per cent of the cases were framed fraudulently, 40 per cent of the cases were established on nothing more than doubts and 20 per cent of the cases were genuine.

Another section of the participants said 60 per cent of the Karo-kari cases were concocted and men and women were made scapegoats only for grabbing lands or settle down old disputes.

Tribal leaders, the speakers said, should chalk out a strategy to tackle the incidents of Karo-kari.

They said the tribal chiefs should lend their unqualified support to minimize, if not wipe out, the inhuman trend.

The speakers accused the tribal chiefs of influencing the outcome of the arbitration process and called for steps to eliminate the trend of Karo-kari killing.

Some speakers recounted the efforts of the former commissioners of Larkana, Sabhago Khan Jatoi, Nazar Hussain Mahar and Aftab Qureshi to uproot the trend.

The speakers, included Aiyesha Mir and Sohail Waraich of Shirkatgah, Sardar Wahid Bakhsh Bhayo, MPA-elect Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi, MPA-elect Mohammad Ayaz Soomro, MNA Anwar Bhutto, Dr Mehboob Shah and others.