Islamabad, Mar 28 (ANI): The Pakistan Supreme Court has termed 'jirgas' as unconstitutional.
This was announced when the court took suo motu notice of the recent rape of a woman in Shiekhupura.
Hearing cases on Tuesday regarding 'jirgas' that permit giving women to settle disputes, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Inspector General police (IGP) Punjab to arrest the culprits and submit a report on the incident within three days.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Chaudhry heard identical petitions filed by Samar Minallah and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) Chairperson Anis Haroon against vani and swara customs exercised through jirgas and punchayats to settle disputes.
Accepting the stance of petitioners, the Supreme Court termed holding of jirgas against the Constitution. Justice Chaudhry also asked the petitioners to submit details of such incidents in the next hearing on April 12 and also sought a report on a jirga held in Sindh which ordered five girls to be given as compensation to settle a murder dispute between two tribes.
The decision of the jirga was taken in the presence of Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani.
In 2007, a five-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Chaudhry had ordered immediate arrest of Bijarani and 10 others allegedly involved in offering five minor girls as compensation in a murder case and another case in 2006 that accused Bijarani of being party to a sang chatti incident.
The chief justice asked Sindh Advocate General for details of the case to be submitted and whether progress was made to implement court orders, and the advocate sought some time to submit his report. (ANI)
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