...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
High Court on Monday disposed of a woman’s petition, which claimed a man, who had invoked the tribal ghag custom against her in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...when she was two only, was creating hurdles to her marriage.
A bench consisting of Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim observed that though the law prohibiting ghag had not been extended to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the custom was against the fundamental rights of an individual enshrined in the Constitution.
It added that as petitioner Amina lived in Swabi district, she should approach the relevant cop shoppe to register a case against the people concerned.
It observed that the local police were bound by the law to provide protection to the petitioner and register her complaint against the people threatening her.
Ghag is an old custom prevalent in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Under it, a man makes a declaration in a locality that a particular girl is engaged to him and nobody else should seek her hand for marriage.
In 2013, the then provincial government had enacted the KP Elimination of the Custom of Ghag Act 2013 on the directives of the high court and declared it an offence.
Javed Ali Asghar, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client belonged to Bajaur Agency and lived in Shah Mansoor Town of Swabi.
He said when the petitioner was two, one of the respondents, Mohammad Sher, had proposed her for his son but her father, Saleem Jan, had put forward an excuse that he wanted to first complete education of his children.
The lawyer added that in 2005, Mohammad Sher again started insistence on his earlier proposal of his client’s engagement with his son, Iftikhar.
He added that the petitioner’s father turned down that proposal and that Iftikhar and Mohammad Sher then announced that the petitioner would only become the wife of Iftikhar and they would not allow anyone else to marry her.
The counsel stated that while Iftikhar had already married in 2007 and was now having four children, but he has still been obstructing marriage of the petitioner and also threatening her of dire consequences.
He said the petitioner was now around 26 and wanted her marriage of her own free will.