Underage marriage: court orders production of UTP
Underage marriage: court orders production of UTP
By Our Correspondent
HYDERABAD, PAKISTAN: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court directed the central prison to produce an under-trial prisoner in court after converting his application into a petition claiming that an influential landlord was forcing his family to give underage girls in marriage and give two more girls as fine for non-compliance of his orders.
The under-trail prisoner Jamshed Ali Hingoro had sent an application complaining that he and his family had been sending applications for seven months to higher ups to seek legal action against the offenders and local police.
The application was also addressed to the president and prime minister. But his pleas fell on deaf ears and he saw no action being taken against the influential culprits, he said.
Mr Jamshed said that in December 2002 Ayub Hingoro, the landlord, ordered his family to give his 12-year-old sister and an 11-year-old cousin to his men in marriage but they refused because the girls were minors and the men did not bear good character.
He charged the landlord, Ghulam Mohammad, Ghulam Akbar, Ghulam Ali, Ashraf, Shahid, Ghulam Qadir, Abdul Hamid, Faiz Mohammad, Ghulam Mustafa, Talib, Irfan, Ghafoor and a number of people belonging to Hingoro community with committing atrocities against him and his relatives after their refusal.
His family had to leave their homes, properties, services and businesses to go in hiding for their dear lives and honour while he and his uncle were put in jail. Odero Lal police implicated him in a false case which was pending trial before additional district judge-VII.
He claimed that the landlord’s men would go on rampage in their village between December 2002 to March 2003, taking away crops, stopping supply of water, blocking passages and attempting to kidnap school teachers from village in order to force them to give their girls in marriage or vacate the village
He blamed the accused for registered three more cases against his relatives to prevent them from approaching higher authorities and courts. Out of these cases his relatives had been acquitted in two cases registered at Tando Adam and Mirpurkhas police stations and their acquittal was proof to their innocence, he said.
The third case was pending before civil judge of Matiari.
He charged that local police had detained seven of his relatives in illegal confinement but they were released after a raid by a magistrate under the directives of district and sessions judge.
He informed that on April 8, 2003 the landlord with about 50 of his men besieged their village, forced all the male members to come out of march took out all male members and forcibly performed nikah of both the girls, 12 year old sister and 11 year old cousin.
He said that after a year they demanded the girls’ Rukhsati which they had refused as Ulema also declared the nikah as invalid and unislamic. The girls also refused to accept it and threatened to commit suicide if they were forced.
He said that the landlord threatened to kill them if they did not give the girls.
He demanded that two more girls should be given as a fine. He said that Mr Ayub Hingoro was the most powerful landlord of the area union council nazim of the area.
Local police knew everything about facts but they did not take any action against them because they had been bribed by the accused, she said.
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