Karo kari is against Geneva Convention: Altaf

Staff Report

KARACHI: The “barbaric act” of karo kari or honour killing is against UN conventions and the Geneva Convention, Altaf Hussain, the self-exiled chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), told participants via telephone from London at a MQM seminar on honour killings held here at a local hotel on Tuesday. Mr Hussain was also critical of the rural practice of marrying women off to the Quran in order to keep land within the family.

He also used the example of the pre-Islamic practice of infanticide that was prevalent in Saudi Arabia to argue against karo kari. “How can there be justice when there are three different law systems operating in the country,” said Mr Hussain naming the court, Shariah and jirga systems. “They end up contradicting each other at times.” Mr Hussain was also critical of religio-political parties and he claimed that so far “even though they call themselves the champions of Islam” not a single religious political party has condemned honour killings. “They defend them saying that karo kari is a cultural tradition,” Mr Hussain said. “Karo kari attests to the failure of the state,” said Anwar Alam, who is in charge of the MQM Rabita Committee. And Jam Saqi said that karo kari will not be “stamped out until the feudal system is abolished”.

He mentioned the various excuses that are concocted to justify karo kari, such as false accusations of a woman’s misconduct, land feuds and revenge for inter-tribal murders. Other speakers included, Justice (Retd.) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice Majda Rizvi, Mehmood Shaam, Amin Khattak, Nasreen Jalil, Bilquis Mukhtar, Heer Ismail, Imdad Soomro, Mumtaz Rashdi, Prof Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Abdul Khaliq Baloch, and Dr Farooq Sattar, MQM MNA.

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