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PAKISTAN: A young couple is in hiding after a tribal court sentenced them to death for their inter-tribal marriage

February 25, 2009

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-018-2009



25 February 2009
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PAKISTAN: A young couple is in hiding after a tribal court sentenced them to death for their inter-tribal marriage

ISSUES: Honour killing; right to life; rule of law; violence against woman
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two young Pakistanis who chose to marry out of their tribal boundaries are currently in hiding, after the leaders of both tribes sentenced them to death in a jirga, or tribal court. The pair has a baby, and the husband's family members have since been beaten and robbed by the rival tribe, with two relatives abducted. The couple narrowly escaped with their lives, and now either need significant protection from the government, or help to leave the country.

CASE DETAILS:

Ms. Saira Jatoi, 22, and Mr Mohammad Ismail Soomro, 30, met and married in May 2007. However their union was almost immediately ruled a breach of Islamic-tribal law by the leader of the woman's Jatoi tribe, originally from Balochistan. The feudal lords demanded that they both, as Karo-Kari ('black marked'), be handed back by the husband's tribe for an honour killing.

According to the wife, Saira, she had earlier rejected a potential husband proposed by her parents, an elderly, wealthy man of her own tribe, and had been severely beaten and tortured at home as a result. Ismail Soomro agreed to marry her and the ceremony took place in Sukkur on the 15 June, 2007. Realising the danger, the two moved away from their tribal areas and kept a low profile, however in July of that year a Jatoi jirga was held, lead by Sardar Abid Hussain Jatoi, and the couple were condemned to death in absentia.

On 3 June, 2008 Jatoi members stormed the house of Ismail's uncle, during which they robbed and beat family members, and abducted Ismail's cousin and his cousin's wife (Dr. Javaid Soomro and Samia Soomro; FIR 85/2008). Meanwhile the husband's Soomro tribe had located the couple and proposed to swap them for the kidnapped couple. Ismail and Saira were convinced to return home by Sardar Junaid Soomro, who falsely promised to protect them. Ismail was asked by family members to divorce Saira, and he refused.

After the switch, the couple were detained and moved to a house in Shiakrpur in the run up to their executions, however friends of Ismail's had called the police. The couple escaped the same day with the help of Sukkur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Bashir Ahmed Memon, and have now gone into hiding. A second FIR was registered by DIG Memon (FIR 97/2008) against both Sadars, for kidnap. However staff dealing with their case at the Human Safety Foundation say that the couple are still in very real danger of abduction and death by any Jatoi at any time.

In August 2008 the foundation lodged a constitutional petition on their behalf (D1571), accusing several of the Jatoi tribe and Soomro tribe members and demanding compensation, and the case has been validated in the court by police officers involved in the case. Of the Jatois, the accused are: Sardar (chief) Abid Hussain Jatoi, Mir Khan, Allahdino Jatoi, Abdul Khaliq, Deedar and Abid (sons of Habibullah Jatoi) and Sijjad (son of Allahdino Jatoi), resident of Shalimar Phattak, Old Sukkur. Of the Soomro tribe are Ali Sher and Khadm, of Micro Colony Sukkur. Those accused have refused to withdraw the jirga death sentence.

The government has since failed to secure an assurance of the couple's safety, should they return to the area. The pair has no means of supporting themselves in hiding, are in a place ill equipped for living in, and have reported hunger--receiving just one meal a day--and mental anguish. The lives of the husband's family members are also in danger. Under the circumstances, the couple has expressed a wish to find asylum overseas, considering the failure of their own country to protect or provide for them.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Tensions between tribes are not uncommon in Pakistan, and Balochi tribes such as the Jatoi consider it a particular dishonour if their women marry into another group. The groups are strictly feudal and religiously conservative, with justice meted out by tribal courts or jirgas: illegitimate gatherings of elders, in which women have no voice and hearsay more often than not, replaces evidence. In cases of female dishonour these cases often result in a woman being marked as Kari. A Kari or 'black marked' woman can be killed by any member of the tribe with impunity, for the sake of honour.

Recent statistics have reported that about 300 women are killed every year in Pakistan sbecause of Kari, often in land distribution disputes, and often by male relatives. This kind of rural vigilante justice is generally tolerated by local police, due to the influence of powerful tribal leaders, and few cases reach the courts. A man who is accused of having an illicit relationship with a woman is generally fined to the tune of a young female member of his family, who is give to the complainant, or killed.
The Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court have declared the Jirga courts as illegal and unconstitutional, however the custom prevails.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities, urging them to provide security to the couple and their infant, who are currently under threat from warring tribes, and appealing for an end to illegitimate jirga trials.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the violence against women and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for their intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear _________________

PAKISTAN: A young couple is in hiding after a tribal court sentenced them to death for their inter-tribal marriage

Name of victims: Ms. Saira Jatoi and Mr. Mohammad Ismail Soomro, Address in Karachi, known to DIG Police Sukkur, Sindh, not to be disclosed for couple’s protection
Name of alleged perpetrators:
1. Sardar (chief) Abid Hussain Jatoi; Mir Khan; Allahdino Jatoi--All resident of Shikarpur, Sindh
2. Abdul Khaliq; Deedar and Abid (sons of Habibullah Jatoi); Sijjad (son of Allahdino Jatoi)--All resident of Shalimar Phattak, Old Sukkur, Sindh
3. Sardar Junaid Soomro; Ali Sher; Khadm--All resident of Micro Colony, Sukkur, Sindh
Date of Incident: May 2007
Place of Incident: Shikarpur, Sindh

I am writing to express my concern about the safety and welfare of a young Pakistani couple, currently hiding from a jirga-ruled death sentence in Shikarpur, Sindh province.

Ms Saira Jatoi, 22, and Mr Mohammad Ismail Soomro, 30, met and married in May 2007. However their union was almost immediately ruled a breach of Islamic-tribal law by the leader of the woman's Jatoi tribe, originally from Balochistan, due to her marriage into another tribe.

According to the wife, Saira, she had rejected a potential husband proposed by her parents, an elderly, wealthy man of her own tribe, and had been severely beaten and tortured at home as a result. Ismail Soomro agreed to marry her and the ceremony took place in Sukkur on the 15 June, 2007. Realising the danger, the two moved away from their tribal areas and tried to keep a low profile, however in July of that year a Jatoi jirga was held, lead by Sardar Abid Hussain Jatoi, and the couple were condemned to death in absentia.

On 3 June, 2008 Jatoi members stormed the house of Ismail's uncle, during which they robbed and beat family members, and abducted Ismail's cousin and his cousin's wife (Dr Javaid Soomro and Samia Soomro; FIR 85/2008). Meanwhile the husband's Soomro tribe had located the couple and proposed to swap them for the kidnapped couple. Ismail and Saira were convinced to return home by Sardar Junaid Soomro, who falsely promised to protect them. Ismail was asked by family members to divorce Saira, and refused.

After the switch, the couple were detained and moved to a house in Shikarpur in the run up to their executions, however friends of Ismail had called the police. With the help of Sukkur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Bashir Ahmed Memon the couple escaped the same day, and have now gone into hiding. A second FIR was registered by DIG Memon (FIR 97/2008) against both Sardars, for kidnap. However staff dealing with their case at the Human Safety Foundation say that the couple are still in very real danger of abduction and death by any Jatoi at any time.

In August 2008 the foundation lodged a constitutional petition on their behalf (D1571), accusing several of the Jatoi tribe and Soomro tribe members and demanding compensation, and the case has been validated in the court by police officers involved in the case. Of the Jatois, the accused are: Sardar (chief) Abid Hussain Jatoi, Mir Khan, Allahdino Jatoi, Abdul Khaliq, Deedar and Abid (sons of Habibullah Jatoi) and Sijjad (son of Allahdino Jatoi), resident of Shalimar Phattak, Old Sukkur. Of the Soomro tribe are Ali Sher and Khadm, of Micro Colony Sukkur. Those accused have refused to withdraw the jirga death sentence.

The government has since failed to secure an assurance of the couple's safety, should they return to the area. The pair has no means of supporting themselves in hiding, are in a place ill equipped for living in, and have reported hunger--receiving just one meal a day--and mental anguish. The lives of the husband's family members are also in danger. Under the circumstances, the couple has expressed a wish to be find asylum overseas, considering the failure of their own country to protect or provide for them.

I wish to express my concern that those involve in the illegal jirga courts have not yet been remanded, and their illegitimate death sentence on the couple taken back and defused within the community. The government has a duty to protect its citizens from arbitrary murder, and to provide for them adequately when their protection has failed. This case shows a pressing need for illegal jirga courts to be thoroughly tackled and effectively banned, both in legislation and the cultural fabric of the rural provinces. It also shows a need for the government to ramp up its efforts to socially and economically empower women, to prevent them being bartered in marriage or killed in the name of misguided religious honour.

I hope your intervention in this case will save the lives of the couple involved, and their infant child.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Asif Ali Zardari
President
President's Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768 / 920 1893 or 1835

2. Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 9221596
Tel: +92 51 9206111
E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk

3. Mr. Rehman Malik
Advisor for Ministry of Interior
Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block,
Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2624
Tel: +92 51 921 2026
E-mail: ministry.interior@gmail.com

4. Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan
Governor of Sindh province
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 920 5043
Tel: +92 21 920 1201
E-mail: governor@governorsindh.gov.pk

5. Syed Qaim Ali Shah
Chief Minister House
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 920 2000
E-mail: pppsindh@yahoo.com

6. Chief Justice of Sindh High Court
High Court Building
Saddar, Karachi
Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9213220
E-mail: info@sindhhighcourt.gov.pk

7. Ms. Nadia Gabol
Minister for Human Rights
Government of Sindh,
Pakistan secretariat, Barrack 92,
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Tel: +92 21 9207043
Fax: +92 21 9207044
E-mail: secy.law@sindh.gov.pk

8. Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Mirza
Minister for Home
Government of Sindh
Barrack 79, Pakistan Secretariate
Near MPA hostel
Karachi, Sindh Province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9204456
Tel: +92 21 9201920-1
E-mail: secy.home@sindh.gov.pk

9. Ms. Toqeer Fatima Bhutto
Minister women development
Government of Sindh,
New Secretariat, Karachi,
Sindh- Pakistan
E-mail: secy.wd@sindh.gov.pk

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-018-2009
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.