Pakistan

Haripur disrobing case: Jirga men remanded in custody

Two of the accused transferred to Haripur jail, one still in hiding.

Express June 18, 2011

HARIPUR:

The Court of the Judicial Magistrate on Friday granted four-day physical remand of the four persons who were allegedly involved in an incident where a woman was paraded naked in the Upper Neelor area of Haripur. Two of the seven nominated in the case have already been transferred to Haripur jail on judicial remand while one is still in hiding.

Saddar police registered a criminal case under sections 34, 506, 109, 436, 427, 354-A and 202 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) FIR No 310 on June 12, against Shabbir*, Imran, Manzoor and Arsalan Khan for allegedly disrobing and parading naked a middle-aged woman, Shaheen*, around the village on June 7.

The police arrested Raqeeb and Matloob and produced them before the court after a four day physical remand. The court has sent them to the Haripur jail on judicial remand.

While the three principal accused Shabbir*, Arsalan and Imran and head of the jirga Basheer were arrested on Thursday. The police requested seven days physical remand for interrogating them but the judicial magistrate’s court granted four days remand.

Meanwhile, Provincial minister for information Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that the parading of a woman naked was an unpardonable crime, abhorred by local culture and Islam, which always advocates for treating women with respect.

He was talking to reporters after visiting Shaheen* in Kangra Colony on Friday. He was accompanied by provincial ministers Sitara Ayaz, Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan and MPAs Goher Nawaz Khan and Yasmin Zia.

The ministers and MPAs expressed solidarity with the victim and assured her justice and security. The information minister also ordered the relocation of the victim to a safe location.

Talking about the jirga system, he said “And I believe that no jirga could allow the disrobing of a woman. The nomenclature of jirga and its members could be wrong but defaming the respectable jirga system altogether is not fair,” he added.

Background

Raqeeb, Matloob and head of the jirga, Muhammad Basheer Abbasi, were nominated for instigating the accused who sexually abused the woman to settle scores for alleged illicit relations of the victim’s son, Karim* with Sadia*, the wife of accused Shabbir*.

Shabbir* had earlier divorced his wife on the suspicion that she was pregnant following her relations with Karim* and his cousin Rashid. Following the divorce, which was endorsed by the jirga held on June 7, Saadia was denied the right to dowry, as well as to the custody of the couple’s young daughter.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

naveed saeed | 12 years ago | Reply the imam of the local mosque was also sitting on this jirga and was involved in making a woman walk naked through the village.According to which islamic teaching was this allowed?? why was the woman's dowry and child taken away from her?? why didn't the jirga investigate if her husband had remained faithful while he was away from the village? why in our society all the onus and responsibility for fidelity is heaped on the woman while her 'majazi khuda' can go out and sleep around with as many women as he wants and our hypocritical society doesn't castigate him,doesn't disown him,doesn't humiliate him?? why only women in our society are forced to remain virgin till their wedding night but the dulhay raja's virginity status is not determined.Another horribly sick discrimination is in the nikah forms in which a vile clause states that the bride must be a virgin,why this medieval condition only for the bride,why is the 'majazi khuda' not forced to be a virgin also????

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