PPP workers protest murder on jirga’s order

Party leaders say Imran Khan, Sirajul Haq support jirga system

LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) staged a protest demonstration on Saturday against the killing of a 16-year-old girl in Abbottabad. Ambreen was strangled and the body was placed in a vehicle and set on fire on the order of a jirga a few weeks ago.

The protesters carried placards reading: Ban Jirga System; Justice for Ambreen. Imran Hakumat Murdabad-Taliban Hakumat Murdabad; Go Imran Go; and Sirajul Haq Murdabad.

They raised slogans against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Imran Khan for not being able to stop jirga hearings across the province.

Former PPP Lahore information secretary Faisal Mir said, “We demand that Imran Khan and Sirajul Haq issue a firm statement against the jirga system and the brutal murder of Ambreen. If they don’t condemn the murder, they should be held responsible for such incidents.”

He appealed to political parties and the army chief to make efforts for including a clause related to the abolition of jirga network in the National Action Plan. He appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the killing. The CJP should direct the provincial government to make sure that the jirga network was rooted out. He said that on coming to power, the PPP would end the system.

Poet Khalid Javed Jan said hundreds of jirga-council rulings were implemented across the province every day. “This is happening right under the nose of Imran Khan and Sirajul Haq. They support such practices.” He said the PPP government would act against those depriving women of their rights.

Former Peoples Labour Bureau in-charge Abdul Qadir Shaheen said Benazir Bhutto had protected women’s rights. “Imran Khan is bent upon taking Pakistan back to the Stone Age. The PPP will expose the PTI,” Shaheen said.

Dr Zarrar accused the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister of holding secret jirgas. “How can he oppose this system?”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2016.