The nation must hang its heads in shame while reading such nerve-wrecking news appearing in our daily newspapers. A jirga held in a village near Khairpur handed over 12 girls to the victim party as compensation in a murder case. The girls aged between 5 to 15 years were declared “vani” and handed over to the aggrieved party. Even after 64 years of existence as an independent Muslim state we still seem to be living in Stone Age. It is surprising that despite such cases occurring every other day, no concrete steps have been taken by the rulers to abolish the “vani system” or to severely punish those who practice it.
The jirgas and panchayats normally comprise of the backward, illiterate, uncouth and waderas of our rural areas having no knowledge of law, religion, rules and regulations plus values, norms and customs of the present day life.
They were created by the British because their legal officers could not reach the far flung desolate areas to dispense justice. Now when we have the legal system spread down to district level, the jirgas and panchayats should be abolished and the magistrates, civil judges and session judges be made responsible for all legal affairs within their areas of jurisdiction.
NIDA ZEHRA
Karachi
