Panchayat writ

Listen to article

Despite improvements in education and awareness of rights, the tribal court system continues to mete out injustice across the country. The latest example of 'elders' proving that age does not always bring wisdom occurred in the rural Bhagwani Shumali area of Dera Ismail Khan in K-P.

A local man committed suicide after a panchayat ordered him to marry off his 11-year-old daughter over the "insult" caused by one of the man's nephews having the gall to speak with a woman from an 'influential' family. The panchayat had already extorted Rs700,000 from the man before forcing him to 'sign away' his daughter on stamp paper — which would still not make any marriage legal as the child is 11, and provincial law requires any girl getting married to be at least 16. It is also worth noting that the girl was already in the panchayat's "custody".

While the police have started making arrests, several members of the panchayat and their enablers are still free. Even if all of the people involved are arrested, there is no guarantee that they will get their comeuppance. Local courts have been worryingly lax in their enforcement of penalties relating to forced marriage, and even when perpetrators have faced justice, the penalties in the relevant laws are comically lax - one month in jail and a Rs1,000 fine.

For justice to be served in the short run, prosecutors must also build their case on extortion and pushing the man to commit suicide, both of which carry more significant jail time and fines. In the long run, K-P Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandpur, whose electoral constituency is just a few kilometres away from where the incident took place, needs to push through reforms to provincial child marriage and forced marriage laws, unlike his predecessors, who all cowered before pressure from 'religious parties'.

The federal government should also do its part by arresting and prosecuting people who promote or defend illegal and immoral practices such as child marriage, making use of its otherwise much-criticised recent curbs on free speech.