Vani is a local custom of giving females mostly minors in marriage by an offending party to the males of the victim party as consideration of compromising offences. Agonizingly, in most of the cases the elderly ones are asked to marry Vani (minor) girls. Despite being criminalized under the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act, passed in 2011, the Vani cases are continuously making headlines in the national press. Earlier this week, a Jirga in Dera Bugti, Balochistan declared 13 girls Vani in a bid to settle a murder conflict between the Bagirani and Shahwani tribes of the area. Similarly, on October 4, two Vani cases were reported from separate localities of Mansehra.
According to a report, as many as 341 cases of forced marriages have been reported in 27 districts in May 2012. The report further says that cases of forced marriages have decreased in Punjab and Sindh while a significant increase of 66 per cent was registered in Islamabad Capital Territory from where 24 cases were reported as compared to last year’s nine. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also observed an increase. Knowingly the Vani custom is illegal rather a serious crime in Pakistan and it can be avoided under the Islamic law of Deet yet the “elders in the society†practice it, ignoring the punishment under the law of the land.
Of late, the Supreme Courts of Pakistan has taken serious notice and action against the continuation of the practice. On Thursday hearing the suo motu notice of a Jirga, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the girls and the tribal elders involved in the Dera Bugti Vani incident be presented before it and the case be thoroughly investigated.
The court also summoned Sarfaraz Bugti, a cousin of a local MPA Mir Tariq Masuri, who allegedly chaired the Jirga to appear before the court. Obviously, the law will take its course and the violators will not go unpunished—at least such is the resolve of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
The matter of serious concern is that the custom is outlawed and punishable with jail term up to seven years and a fine to the tune of Rs 0.5 million yet the influential people continue to practice these customs to settle their disputes, upholding the personal interests and fake egos, hardly taking into account the contempt, the hatred and the feeling of being scapegoats, the girls have to live with in for rest of their lives. The Vani girls have to surrender themselves like slaves enduring the pain, the agony and the punishment for sins they have never committed.
The custom is mostly practiced in relatively under-developed areas and amongst illiterate segments of the society living under the influence of macho men, sardars and waderas hence should be dealt with iron-hands putting a firm stamp that the law firmly stands by the weak and fair sex, and more so they are human beings not the sacrificial animals who can be bartered to fend off the feuds.
Posted in "The Frontier Post"
http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/186454/
According to a report, as many as 341 cases of forced marriages have been reported in 27 districts in May 2012. The report further says that cases of forced marriages have decreased in Punjab and Sindh while a significant increase of 66 per cent was registered in Islamabad Capital Territory from where 24 cases were reported as compared to last year’s nine. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also observed an increase. Knowingly the Vani custom is illegal rather a serious crime in Pakistan and it can be avoided under the Islamic law of Deet yet the “elders in the society†practice it, ignoring the punishment under the law of the land.
Of late, the Supreme Courts of Pakistan has taken serious notice and action against the continuation of the practice. On Thursday hearing the suo motu notice of a Jirga, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the girls and the tribal elders involved in the Dera Bugti Vani incident be presented before it and the case be thoroughly investigated.
The court also summoned Sarfaraz Bugti, a cousin of a local MPA Mir Tariq Masuri, who allegedly chaired the Jirga to appear before the court. Obviously, the law will take its course and the violators will not go unpunished—at least such is the resolve of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
The matter of serious concern is that the custom is outlawed and punishable with jail term up to seven years and a fine to the tune of Rs 0.5 million yet the influential people continue to practice these customs to settle their disputes, upholding the personal interests and fake egos, hardly taking into account the contempt, the hatred and the feeling of being scapegoats, the girls have to live with in for rest of their lives. The Vani girls have to surrender themselves like slaves enduring the pain, the agony and the punishment for sins they have never committed.
The custom is mostly practiced in relatively under-developed areas and amongst illiterate segments of the society living under the influence of macho men, sardars and waderas hence should be dealt with iron-hands putting a firm stamp that the law firmly stands by the weak and fair sex, and more so they are human beings not the sacrificial animals who can be bartered to fend off the feuds.
Posted in "The Frontier Post"
http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/186454/
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