Two-year-old engaged to 40-year-old in Pakistan

Where are we living...disgusting...
Monday February 21 2005 11:46 IST
IANS
ISLAMABAD: Two-year-old Ruby has barely learnt to walk but she finds herself engaged to a 40-year-old man in another shocking verdict by a village council in Pakistan.
Ruby was formally engaged to Rehmat Khan to settle a dispute between the two families, an incident reported by GEO television.
It said the decision was taken by the local panchayat (village leaders) to settle the dispute that started some seven years ago. The incident took place in Ratta village of Punjab province, about 80 km east of Multan city.
The report said Ruby's paternal uncle Sadiq had some land dispute with Khan. According to the channel, Sadiq had unlawfully seized some two acres of land that belonged to Khan and harvested different crops in seven years.Khan went to court.
But when the court could not come up with any decision, he referred the matter to the village council. The council met 11 times in three months and finally on Saturday decided that Sadiq would pay Rs.250,000 rupees to Khan and marry a girl from his family to Khan.
Since the only unmarried girl in Sadiq's family was his two-year-old niece, the council recommended that she should be engaged with Khan and marriage would take place when the girl reached puberty.
The GEO reporter from Multan, Jamshed Rizwani, told IANS that a complaint had been registered against the council members and police were looking for them while Sadiq had been taken into custody.
"I came to know about the incident the same day as one of my cousins lives in that area," Rizwani said.This is the second such incident in the Seraiki-speaking area of Multan that has drawn national attention.
Earlier, such a council in another village ordered the gang rape of a girl as a punishment for her brother.All those involved in the decision-making were arrested and punished at the orders of President Pervez Musharraf.
Rizwani said such incidents would continue to happen until stricter laws were enforced and "members of councils given exemplary punishment."

Comments

Tulaja said…

A girl in the family is treated as a commodity.. how tragic! Is it 2005?

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