JACOBABAD, Nov 18: Three women who had been given in marriage when they were minors by a jirga several years ago as compensation for a dispute over honour-killing in Ghouspur have refused to leave their parents’ home and appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice.

Ms Shahina, Ms Sandal and Ms Sakina reached the press club on Tuesday and told journalists while carrying the holy book in their hands that they would never accept the dictates of jirga and would rather commit suicide.

The girls’ parents said that they feared the rival party would treat them in a harsh and inhuman manner if they were married into them. The parents said that the influential people were mounting pressure on them to give their three daughters in marriage and threaten to lodge an FIR on the pretext of an old murder.

Now the girls had grown up and they were not willing to accept a decision taken about them several years ago, they said. The girls belong to Ogahi tribe of Ghouspur, Kandhkot.

The girls’ father said that a girl Ms Shahina who had been given in marriage to their group had to face torture at the hands of her husband who often deprived him of two times meal.

He said that some influential people of the area were issuing them death threats and compelling them to migrate from the area.

Kashmore DPO said the “reparation of girls” in marriage by a jirga was banned and illegal and he would arrest people involved in this act.

The girls arrived at the DPO’s office on Tuesday and sought protection.

They told the DPO that they did not want to marry because when the jirga gave its decision they were only three and four years old. The jirga-holder, too, was dead by now, they said.

DPO Mohammad Younis Chandio ordered the SHO of Ghouspur to protect the girls and lodge an FIR against jirga-holders.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/19/2008