WOMEN are incidental for jirgas. The latest victim was a newly-wed 19-year-old who was murdered for ‘honour’ in Pirwadhai after a jirga reportedly ordered her killing. While her husband and relatives scrambled to register an FIR to avoid a murder investigation, the police took the gravedigger, the graveyard secretary and family members into custody and sought court orders for the exhumation of the body to determine the cause of death. Without an autopsy report, perpetrators escape being charged with murder, including ‘honour’ killing. This parallel justice system continues to run wild despite the fact that it does not have legal cover.

Jirgas violate the principle of separation of powers as the constititutional obligation to provide justice to citizens lies with the state alone. In 2004, a landmark judgement by the Sindh High Court declared the jirga system illegal and against the Constitution and the law of the land. The order also compels the police to prevent jirga gatherings in their precincts. Unsurprisingly, law enforcers have failed to implement the ruling. Additionally, in a bid to bring jirgas to heel, the Supreme Court outlawed them in 2006, and in 2017, it ruled that the system of jirgas and panchayats was in violation of Pakistan’s international commitments, including CEDAW. But court orders and customary condemnations cannot guarantee easy access to justice and enforcement of laws in feudal and tribal regions. Although jirgas’ validity can be challenged, an expensive and labyrinthine judicial process and distrust in police force populations, especially in rural areas, to turn to them. Officialdom must ensure that legal fora replace tribal justice with stringent application of the law, and hold the enforcers of the latter accountable. For this, the age-old policy of stalling reforms aimed at ensuring an accessible and empowered legal system must be cast aside. The state must clamp down on jirgas, whose rulings are based on tradition rather than the law, and on those who uphold them.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2025