Islamabad : Status of the decisions taken by ‘jirgas’ and ‘panchayats’ would soon be clarified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as the Court has completed hearing on the petition filed by National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) against illegal holding of ‘jirgas’ and particularly its use against the weak in general and women in particular.
The Commission filed the petition in March 2012 but the decision remained pending due to various reasons. The Supreme Court directed all stakeholders to submit their reply but only the Government of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa submitted their response to the Court. Initially the case was adjourned on the ground that NCSW had no chairperson at the time. The hearing was resumed later in 2014. The recent hearing took place on August 30, 2018.
The petition filed in 2012 brings under challenge the permissibility, prevalence and forced imposition of this unconstitutional, unlawful, and un-just custom and tradition of ‘jirgas and panchayat’s as an adjudicating body awarding judgments and executing punishments and deciding family, civil and other disputes thus exercising civil and criminal jurisdictions of the Court. It says that if the on-going illegal practice is left unchecked, it might put the entire legal system of the country into disarray and amounts to setting up parallel illegal court structure where vigilante justice is dispensed at the hands of certain self-appointed and opinionated members of the public in accordance with their wrong interpretation of Islamic and customary laws and accordingly dispensing justice resulting in inhumane and degrading criminal punishments and subsequently executing the same.
Talking to ‘The News’, NCSW Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz said that the Commission believes that criminal cases should be tried in courts and through due process of law and not by illegal unrepresentative forums. She said that she is looking forward to a positive judgment that will put a stop to victimization of women and the weak in the society.
