The Supreme Court on Friday directed the district police officer (DPO) Sukkur to arrest all the remaining accused involved in giving away 12 teenage girls along and Rs 2.2 million as compensation to the families of four people who were murdered under the tradition of sangchati.
Sangchati is a mode of resolving disputes in which young girls of the offender’s family are wedded to the men of the victim family. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani heard the petition moved by a human rights activist and anthropologist Samar Minallah against the un-Islamic traditions of swara, wani and sangchati in different parts of the country.
She made the federation, Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education and Ministry of Law, Justice, Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs as respondents. Appearing on notice, DPO Sukkur told the court that out of 18 people of the jirga, which imposed the decision, two people had been arrested. The court directed the DPO to arrest all the accused and present their challan with the competent court and submit a report with the Supreme Court’s Registrar Office.
It also asked the competent court to hear the case on day-to-day basis and decide the matter within two weeks.
When the case was presented before the apex court, it had clubbed with similar pending cases. The petitions seeking declaration of swara, wani and sangchati as unconstitutional, unlawful and un-Islamic customs are pending before the apex court.
