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Editor NNA
Mar 4, 2009, 6:36:10 AM3/4/09
to National News
March 04, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: Order an honour killing - become a minister
The Asian Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned to discover
that a man accused of ordering an honour killing last year in a
tribal court - and who is still openly pursuing the murder has just
been made a minister in the Sindh provincial government. He is the
seventh person with a history in illegal jirga rulings, relating
either to the murder or the bartering of women and children, to be
appointed in Zardari's government.
On 25 February, 2008, the AHRC released an urgent appeal on behalf of
a young couple in hiding, both black-marked for death by the Jatoi
tribe in rural Sindh. Saira Jatoi, 22 and Mohammad Ismail Soomro, 30,
had married against the wishes of their families. Please see the
appeal: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3118/
As the chief of the Balochi Jatoi tribe, Mr Abid Hussain Jatoi
commanded the couple's death sentence and arranged the beating and
abduction of the husband's relatives. Though Jatoi has not yet been
given a portfolio, he has been given all the powers of a minister,
and after being appointed on 27 February, 2009, his first official
duty was to send a message to the husband's parents through henchmen
and police officials. The message said that if the young woman was
not returned to the tribe, she and her six-month-old baby would be
killed. Being 'Kari', or black marked by the tribal court, Saira is
liable to be killed regardless.
The message was sent on 1 March and arrived at midnight at her
in-laws house in Sukkur, Sindh province (20 km from the Jatoi s
house). The family was told that the men in uniform were personal
guards of the minister and that in his new role he could easily track
down the couple, who are currently in hiding.
The case hasn't yet reached the courts, but Abid Jatoi s name is
mentioned in a first information report (FIR number 97/2008), a
requirement for a legal case, which accuses him of kidnapping the
couple. Though it was lodged with the Sukkur police by Mr. Bashir
Ahmed Menon, the deputy inspector general of police in Sindh, Jatoi
was never arrested.
In Pakistan extra-judicial killings and the jirgas that command them
are illegal, and yet three ministers in the federal government were
prominently involved in jirgas in the recent past, which dealt
destructive sentences against women and children. Mr Hazar Khan
Bijarani, minister for education, was sentenced by the Supreme Court
of Pakistan in 2005 for a jirga that handed over five minor girls in
marriage to settle a dispute. His sentence was never arranged. Mr
Sana Zehri, state minister, declared in the senate that the
jirga-ordered burial of five women alive was a justified local
custom. The perpetrator of that crime is allegedly Mr Abdul Sattar
Umrani, the protected younger brother of Minister Sadiq Umrani, and
had been ordered to pay compensation to a jirga court years before
for the murder of eight other people. He was not arrested. Mr Amin
Fahim, senior minister in the federal cabinet used a tribal custom to
marry his two sisters to the Quran, to bar them from marrying men.
There are at least three other ministers in the Sindh provincial
cabinet who are notorious for helming jirgas against women, but have
not been officially charged: Mr Abid Hussain Jatoi, Mr Nadir Khan
Magsi and Mr Abdul Haque Bhurt, the minister of livestock. When
looking at the promotions of these men soon after illegal and often
barbaric acts of jirga authority against women and children, it
begins to look like the penchant has become a professional asset. Is
this misogynist and illegitimate form of religious conservative rule
now to be embraced by the Pakistani government? Does it really expect
to champion the rights of women, as it has claimed to now do, with
these men on board?
The provincial government is duty-bound to provide protection to the
couple in question and their baby, and it is duty-bound to arrest
Abid Hussain Jatoi. To promote him instead, as with Bijarani, Zehri
and Umrani, is utterly at odds with Zardari's assumed stance on the
empowerment of women and the progress of Pakistan.
The Asian Human Rights Commission would also like to appeal again to
human rights and women's rights organisations to consider the case of
Saira Jatoi and Mohammad Ismail Soomro. With their would-be killer now
enjoying the power and impunity of a government position, their
chances of survival are becoming slimmer by the day.
--
Plz see the attached file
Also Send your feedback to us
Suhail Ilyas
Editor NNA
0333-5164061
Tayyaba Ilyas
Editor NNA
051-2612888, 051-2613000
Join NNA
http://dailykhabarnama.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/nna-editor
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: Order an honour killing - become a minister
The Asian Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned to discover
that a man accused of ordering an honour killing last year in a
tribal court - and who is still openly pursuing the murder has just
been made a minister in the Sindh provincial government. He is the
seventh person with a history in illegal jirga rulings, relating
either to the murder or the bartering of women and children, to be
appointed in Zardari's government.
On 25 February, 2008, the AHRC released an urgent appeal on behalf of
a young couple in hiding, both black-marked for death by the Jatoi
tribe in rural Sindh. Saira Jatoi, 22 and Mohammad Ismail Soomro, 30,
had married against the wishes of their families. Please see the
appeal: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3118/
As the chief of the Balochi Jatoi tribe, Mr Abid Hussain Jatoi
commanded the couple's death sentence and arranged the beating and
abduction of the husband's relatives. Though Jatoi has not yet been
given a portfolio, he has been given all the powers of a minister,
and after being appointed on 27 February, 2009, his first official
duty was to send a message to the husband's parents through henchmen
and police officials. The message said that if the young woman was
not returned to the tribe, she and her six-month-old baby would be
killed. Being 'Kari', or black marked by the tribal court, Saira is
liable to be killed regardless.
The message was sent on 1 March and arrived at midnight at her
in-laws house in Sukkur, Sindh province (20 km from the Jatoi s
house). The family was told that the men in uniform were personal
guards of the minister and that in his new role he could easily track
down the couple, who are currently in hiding.
The case hasn't yet reached the courts, but Abid Jatoi s name is
mentioned in a first information report (FIR number 97/2008), a
requirement for a legal case, which accuses him of kidnapping the
couple. Though it was lodged with the Sukkur police by Mr. Bashir
Ahmed Menon, the deputy inspector general of police in Sindh, Jatoi
was never arrested.
In Pakistan extra-judicial killings and the jirgas that command them
are illegal, and yet three ministers in the federal government were
prominently involved in jirgas in the recent past, which dealt
destructive sentences against women and children. Mr Hazar Khan
Bijarani, minister for education, was sentenced by the Supreme Court
of Pakistan in 2005 for a jirga that handed over five minor girls in
marriage to settle a dispute. His sentence was never arranged. Mr
Sana Zehri, state minister, declared in the senate that the
jirga-ordered burial of five women alive was a justified local
custom. The perpetrator of that crime is allegedly Mr Abdul Sattar
Umrani, the protected younger brother of Minister Sadiq Umrani, and
had been ordered to pay compensation to a jirga court years before
for the murder of eight other people. He was not arrested. Mr Amin
Fahim, senior minister in the federal cabinet used a tribal custom to
marry his two sisters to the Quran, to bar them from marrying men.
There are at least three other ministers in the Sindh provincial
cabinet who are notorious for helming jirgas against women, but have
not been officially charged: Mr Abid Hussain Jatoi, Mr Nadir Khan
Magsi and Mr Abdul Haque Bhurt, the minister of livestock. When
looking at the promotions of these men soon after illegal and often
barbaric acts of jirga authority against women and children, it
begins to look like the penchant has become a professional asset. Is
this misogynist and illegitimate form of religious conservative rule
now to be embraced by the Pakistani government? Does it really expect
to champion the rights of women, as it has claimed to now do, with
these men on board?
The provincial government is duty-bound to provide protection to the
couple in question and their baby, and it is duty-bound to arrest
Abid Hussain Jatoi. To promote him instead, as with Bijarani, Zehri
and Umrani, is utterly at odds with Zardari's assumed stance on the
empowerment of women and the progress of Pakistan.
The Asian Human Rights Commission would also like to appeal again to
human rights and women's rights organisations to consider the case of
Saira Jatoi and Mohammad Ismail Soomro. With their would-be killer now
enjoying the power and impunity of a government position, their
chances of survival are becoming slimmer by the day.
--
Plz see the attached file
Also Send your feedback to us
Suhail Ilyas
Editor NNA
0333-5164061
Tayyaba Ilyas
Editor NNA
051-2612888, 051-2613000
Join NNA
http://dailykhabarnama.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/nna-editor
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