| Baseer Naveed 
Jirgas are court-like gatherings of tribal men which have been declared illegal by the superior courts in Pakistan
(Photo: www.dailylife.com) Several months ago eight women, three of them minors, were buried alive in Balochistan, reportedly by the same men. Those responsible were found to have close ties with the provincial government and to the police; and investigations into the case have gone through a Kafkan array of delays and setbacks.
In March this year, a 17-year-old girl in Sindh province was pressurized by her uncle to convince her parents to hand over acres of farm land to him. When she refused, the uncle and his accomplices brought in her father and made him watch as his daughter was mauled by a pack of dogs and then shot to death. Two months later, a Jirga was arranged in which the dead girl was posthumously declared 'Kari?that is, involved in an illicit relationship. The murderers were vindicated and a local man was forced to confess to being the illicit lover of the girl, and to pay Rs 400,000 as compensation.
These brutal cases and the bungled follow up is a good example of how murder cases are dealt with in Pakistan's feudal north—especially those involving women. In fact, the majority of the more barbaric human rights violations making their way out of Pakistan can be traced to the Jirga, court-like gatherings of tribal men which have been declared illegal by the superior courts in Pakistan. This is in fact an illustration of the government's ineptitude in combating two illegal practices: Honour killings and Jirgas, the tribal courts that order them.
More than 4,000 people have died in Jirga sanctified murders over the last six years and two thirds of them have been women. Their deaths have often been caused under the most barbaric of circumstances. Many are charged with having a relationship out of marriage, an often fabricated claim, while others are suspected of planning love marriages (in opposition to the marriages planned by their families).
However it is believed, that the main reason behind these killings is property. That is, as a way of resolving property disputes—particularly by male family members who resent losing property to another family, through marriage.
In the feudal, fiercely patriarchal north, women's lives are worth little. It is a matter of prestige to have more than one wife, and young girls are often sold into marriage to settle disputes. In one case, under the orders of a Jirga and with the knowledge and apparent acquiescence of the police, three young girls aged 10, 12, 13, were handed over as compensation to a man who claimed that their father had slept with his wife. The complainant had openly killed the wife, as he had his previous wife.
Those that commit such 'honour crimes?or 'karo-kiri?are supposed to be punished with a life sentence, but the true culprits are rarely punished. Supported by tribal chiefs and traditional Jirga law, the practice is increasing. More people are being extrajudicially murdered than ever before.
People's representatives
In June 2006 a five member bench of Supreme Court judges ordered police in Kashmore, Sindh province to arrest a PPP leader and national assembly member, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, for involvement in "Sangchatti?offering young girls as blood money. He was accused, along with others, of offering a total of five young girls as blood money in two separate cases.
Most of the girls were under seven years old. Police neglected to follow up on the order and, after some time keeping his head low, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani has become federal minister of Education.
This August, Balochistan Senator Sardar Isarullah Zehri, along with Senator Jan Mohammad Jamail—deputy chairman of the Senate—chose to defend as custom, Jirga-ordered 'honour killings' in his province; the burying of three teenage girls and two of their aunts alive. And despite the fact that the case is yet to be properly investigated, Mr. Zehri was inducted as a minister of state.
Considering that many of those involved in implementing Jirgas hold, or will likely go on to hold, places in Pakistan's parliament, Dr Farzana Bari and Sarwar Bari in a statement last month noted that "many think that with such a misogynist and criminal mindset of our public representatives, what hope do we have to survive as a nation and pull ourselves out of multiple crises??
The message sent by such appointments is irreversibly damaging, both to Pakistan's international reputation and to the faith of its people in its system of justice. The government has repeatedly pledged to tackle illegal Jirgas and honour killings, both deeply entrenched problems, yet by placing men with archaic beliefs and fundamentalists?pasts within the system; it clearly has little intention of doing so.
For the average Pakistani the message is clear: Power is impunity. For the world, it appears that the tribal and feudal hierarchy is seeping back into power once again.
The Jirga method
To appreciate the destructive, random nature of the Jirga, its methods must be looked at. In a tribal court, witnesses and hearsay are the main forms of evidence and a verdict often rests on the reputation or power of a witness. Women are considered sexually corrupt, and their testimonies are never given any weight. In fact, in Jirga proceedings women are not allowed to participate.
During a session spectators tend to gather, pick a side and heckle, putting pressure on the decision makers. Some spectators head to Jirgas for entertainment and needless to say, the most popular verdict may not always be a just one; it is difficult to reconcile justice with the will of an over-excited mob. In many instances, superstition also comes into play. In certain cases defendants have been told to walk on hot coals; if they feel and show no pain then they are deemed to be innocent.
These are not conditions of a humane or rational system, and yet it is one that regularly deals out the death sentence.
The power of the Jirga has increased over the years due to the failings in Pakistan's existing legal system. Judgments can take years, even generations, and Pakistanis with small civil complaints often prefer to take the swifter route through local Jirgas because they have little faith in the system. It is from here that the Jirga's advent into life and death judgments has grown.
The likelihood of justice has become so bad that a Jirga-issued death sentence has become a way to resolve personal and political vendettas and property disputes. As aforementioned, this is particularly resorted to by male family members who resent losing property to another family through the marriage of a woman relative.
One of the main problems in combating Jirgas is its defence under the umbrella of custom. When the case of the eight women who were buried alive came to light, two Pakistani senators defended the act as an example of Baloch tradition. This word 'tradition?conjures up wholesome, age-old, culturally rich practices that are under threat from secular or western values. One obvious question is whether the terms 'tradition?or 'culture?should apply to arbitrary, extrajudicial killings.
Another would be to note that upon Islam's birth in 7AD the faith was a force against the live burial of female babies—common at that time. The Quran does not support such murders. However, these murders are committed in its name. The justification of such murders in the name of the Quran needs to be questioned and exposed. Actual development of such practices of murder have more to do with property disputes and the very distortion of the tribal practices themselves in order to support injustices and discrimination against women.
What takes place as Jirgas today are mob trials, manipulated by the rich, powerful and male elements. At one time Jirgas may have had some very legitimate aspects of tribal dispute settlement. However, what is found today is an aberration of such systems to justify cruelties that would not have been acceptable to tribal people in the earlier stages of history.
Actions needed
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Pakistani NGO activists perform the shooting and burying alive of 5 women because three of them wanted to marry men of their choice.
(Photo: www.daylife.com)
| To conquer these practices, which go against the nation's constitution, Pakistan needs to look deep into its own system and make strong, confident changes. It is time for the government to show its seriousness about becoming a respectable twenty-first century power, and safeguarding the rights of its people.
Creating new laws will not do much good, since many of the existing laws are not implemented. Instead there must be a bigger crackdown on illegal Jirgas and those conducting them must be brought before the law and punished without exception. Those who have killed through Jirgas must be tried for murder; a country must have only one law for murder, without distinctions or impunity. Many men serving in parliament today have been a part of Jirga courts and a serious resolution of the issue will never be met with such men in power. Those who have conducted Jirgas should be banned from holding public office, and those already in office must be ejected. Political will is required for curbing this menace. A clear signal should be sent that the constitutional law of Pakistan needs to be respected. |
Honour killing is murder and the legal rights of the relatives of the victims must be recognized and acted on. This includes the right to an investigation and trial. Under Article 2 of the ICCPR—International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—which Pakistan has signed, the state is under obligation to take measures to protect rights and provide remedy for victims of rights violations.
Those who carry out extrajudicial violence must be made to see that it will no longer be tolerated. Victims and their families must understand that there is a process by which they can seek justice. To ensure that these steps are taken an independent monitoring body needs to be established, funded and given free reign.
It is a government's responsibility to educate. Thus a strong educational network must be created that can work against what has become an entrenched practice, particularly in the tribal northern areas which remain isolated, ideologically, from the rest of the country.
If the government is genuinely serious about tackling honour killings and modernizing its legal system, this is the very least it can do.
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