olena
<font color=green>Emerald Angel<br><font color=mag
- Joined
- May 12, 2001
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Four murderers face execution on Saturday in Pakistan after a storm of protest scuttled a deal by which they sought to escape hanging by selling young daughters into marriage to elderly relatives of their victims.
A district mayor in the city of Mianwali in Punjab province said the bridegrooms -- one aged 77 and the other 55 -- married the 15- and 14-year-old daughters of two of the murderers on Wednesday morning, but divorced them later the same day on the advice of local elders.
"Now the deal is in limbo," Umair Ejaz told Reuters. "We are trying to find a better solution."
Pakistan's Supreme Court also ordered a probe into the marriage deal on Wednesday, saying it violated the law and the norms of a civilized society.
Newspaper reports said the family of two murdered men in the village of Abbakhel had demanded $200,000 and 20 young brides to agree to pardons for the murderers.
The village council mediated a compromise by which the victims' family agreed to take eight unmarried young women and $133,000.
The English-language daily Dawn said the scene at the weddings was more like a funeral.
"The houses of the brides presented a mourning scene as shrieks and cries were heard when the Nikah was performed," the paper said, referring to the marriage solemnization ceremony.
Ejaz said the marriage deal had been a last resort as the four men on death row had exhausted all appeals, including one to President Pervez Musharraf. They are due to be hanged on Saturday.
Islamic laws introduced by former military dictator President Zia-ul-Haq provide for convicts -- even those on death row -- to be pardoned if the victim's family agrees to accept cash compensation, called Qisas. Providing women as compensation is not allowed.
Ejaz said elders told the victims' family it was "unethical" for a 77-year-old man to marry a 15-year-old. But a local newspaper reporter said the divorces came under police pressure.
"Police encircled the girls' houses to ensure they were not sent to their husbands," he said. "The police forced the husbands to divorce."
It was the second time this month the Supreme Court has intervened in a women's rights case in Punjab.
It ordered a similar probe after media reported a gang-rape of a 30-year-old woman on June 22 carried out on the orders of a village council in another Punjab village to avenge her brother's affair with a more powerful family.
The incident sparked national and international controversy and highlighted the uneasy co-existence of traditional law alongside Islamic and civil law.
On orders of the Supreme Court, police arrested four men accused of the rape and eight members of the village council. They await trial by a special Anti-Terrorism Court.
How can they treat women like that? It's disgusting.
A district mayor in the city of Mianwali in Punjab province said the bridegrooms -- one aged 77 and the other 55 -- married the 15- and 14-year-old daughters of two of the murderers on Wednesday morning, but divorced them later the same day on the advice of local elders.
"Now the deal is in limbo," Umair Ejaz told Reuters. "We are trying to find a better solution."
Pakistan's Supreme Court also ordered a probe into the marriage deal on Wednesday, saying it violated the law and the norms of a civilized society.
Newspaper reports said the family of two murdered men in the village of Abbakhel had demanded $200,000 and 20 young brides to agree to pardons for the murderers.
The village council mediated a compromise by which the victims' family agreed to take eight unmarried young women and $133,000.
The English-language daily Dawn said the scene at the weddings was more like a funeral.
"The houses of the brides presented a mourning scene as shrieks and cries were heard when the Nikah was performed," the paper said, referring to the marriage solemnization ceremony.
Ejaz said the marriage deal had been a last resort as the four men on death row had exhausted all appeals, including one to President Pervez Musharraf. They are due to be hanged on Saturday.
Islamic laws introduced by former military dictator President Zia-ul-Haq provide for convicts -- even those on death row -- to be pardoned if the victim's family agrees to accept cash compensation, called Qisas. Providing women as compensation is not allowed.
Ejaz said elders told the victims' family it was "unethical" for a 77-year-old man to marry a 15-year-old. But a local newspaper reporter said the divorces came under police pressure.
"Police encircled the girls' houses to ensure they were not sent to their husbands," he said. "The police forced the husbands to divorce."
It was the second time this month the Supreme Court has intervened in a women's rights case in Punjab.
It ordered a similar probe after media reported a gang-rape of a 30-year-old woman on June 22 carried out on the orders of a village council in another Punjab village to avenge her brother's affair with a more powerful family.
The incident sparked national and international controversy and highlighted the uneasy co-existence of traditional law alongside Islamic and civil law.
On orders of the Supreme Court, police arrested four men accused of the rape and eight members of the village council. They await trial by a special Anti-Terrorism Court.
How can they treat women like that? It's disgusting.
