| MadMax |
Posted
on 01-Jun-03 09:44 AM
Little girl's grandfather gets her married to ageing landlord
By Khurram Shahzad
Daily Times, Pakistan
Saturday, May 31, 2003
Islamabad - A 10-year-old girl was married to a 60-year-
old man when her grandfather sold her out for Rs 100,000.
Pathani Bibi, from Nurwal village, in district Dadu, was
kidnapped by her grandfather, Muhammed Qasim, and later
sold out to a landlord of the same village for Rs
100,000. The father of the poor girl, Amin Phanwar, went
to court and presented a petition against his father and
the ''buyers'' but finally gave up after fighting for a
year in the court. Meanwhile, the respondent forced him
and his daughter to leave the village and take refuge in
Islamabad for getting protection from his opponents.
Mr Phanwar told a press conference along with his
daughter at the office of the Progressive Women
Association (PWA) here on Thursday. He did not have a
single penny to feed his daughter and other children and
he had to run from his home to protect his daughter.
Narrating the story, Mr Phanwar said in 2002 his father
got a loan of Rs 100,000 from a rich landlord in the
village, Muhammad Qasim, and made a commitment with him
that he would let his daughter, Arbab, Mr Phanwar's
sister, marry Qasim.
Ms Arbab had already married with her first cousin and
her father forced her to get a divorce. But when she got
divorced Amin stopped his father from selling Ms Arbab to
his creditor and arranged her marriage to another cousin
without getting money.
Muhammad Qasim, Mr Phanwar's father, planned to sell
Amin's daughter, Pathani, for the money he had already
borrowed and spent. On June 20, he went to Amin telling
him that he was taking Ms Pathani with him to Dadu city
on a picnic.
He took the girl and handed her over to Qasim and his
son, Jaffer, in the presence of a local Jirga including
influential feudals Allah Bachayo, Naban Khan and an
inspector of the Sehwan Sharif Police Station, Manzur.
Qasim and his son arranged a Moulvi (name not known) and
registered a nikkah. Qasim kept the girl in a lockup but
she ran away home the next day and told her ordeal to the
father. Amin registered a police report against his
father and other people involved in the matter. However,
he could not convince the court as its proceedings had
still to be completed. No action was taken against the
culprits.
Inspector Manzur, who was a member of Jirgah and
witnessed the illegal nikah, arrested Amin illegally on
May 10 and tortured him with a demand to hand over the
little girl to Qasim. Amin was finally released from the
jail on the condition that he would hand over Ms Pathani
to Qasim. But he ran from his home and approached the
human rights activist, Shahnaz Bukhari, at his PWA office
in Islamabad.
Talking to the reporters at the office, Amin Phanwar said
he and his daughter had escaped from many attacks
attempted by Muhammad Qasim and Jaffer and that they now
needed government protection.
''I have nothing to protect my family and myself even I
have not a single penny to feed my children under this
critical circumstances. I want to meet the president and
prime minister to get their help, because I can't go back
home as my enemies are following my daughter and me to
kill my family,'' He said as he was crying.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-5-2003_pg7_44
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