KARACHI, March 9: Speakers at seminar on Sunday demanded that all the laws discriminatory to any section of the society be abolished immediately.

They were speaking at a seminar on Gender Equality and Global Peace organized by the Sindh National Council in connection with the International Women’s Day that was celebrated around the globe on Saturday.

Pointing out that the country was a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) they demanded that all local laws be made in conformity with the international commitment.

They said that victmization of women was rampant, and many women were being killed under the garb of honour under with different names, be it Karo Kari or siyahkari, all over the country, to settle old disputes, family feuds, property matters and marriage disputes. The police did not investigate these matter properly and many culprits were released. Others were set free under the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance.

They informed that nearly 400 women were killed in Sindh during the year 2002.

They said it was probably one of the darkest days in the history of the country when the upper house of the Parliament could not even condemn the socalled honour killings, though the senate chief was a highly qualified man and a Rhodes scholar.

They said that credit was due to Gen Musharraf for giving representation to women, but it was a pity that the Sindh chief minister was a supporter of the jirga system, a minister was defending the karo kari killings and the country’s ambassador to the United Nations was involved in domestic violence.

PPP Shaheed Bhutto chief Ghanwa Bhutto, speaking on the occasion, said if the British rulers could abolish the tradition of Sati, under which the Hindu widow was burnt alive with her dead husband, from the subcontinent, the Pakistan government could also abolish the karo kari, if it really wanted to control the menace.

A message from former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wajid, was also read out on the occasion.

Hussain Bakhsh Thebo, Dr Dodo Mehri, Pamela Murtaza, Hameed Sindhi, Zulfiqar Halepoto, Javed Qazi, Rahim Solangi, Muneer Bhurgari, Prof Jamal Naqvi, Bishop Ejaz and others spoke at the seminar conducted by Shafaq Kazi and Rabiyah Beg.

Theatre group Tehreek-i-Niswan staged a play highlighting the miseries of women, and screened a film regarding victimization of women.

Sahar Hassan and A. Ghaffar Tabassum recited poems on women’s hardships. Mazhar Hussain sang a song highlighting women’s issues, and Arbab Allah Bachayo played “Alghoza”.

SDA SUPPORT: Provincial minister and Sindh Democratic Alliance chief, Imtiaz Shaikh, said that he would move a bill against karo kari. He said the SDA believed in women’s empowerment and had declared honour killing as murder in its manifesto.