Tribal

Understanding Tribal Conflict

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  • Post category:Law
  • Reading time:5 mins read

LAST week, the Women Action Forum (WAF) held an event in Karachi on the impact of tribal conflict in Sindh. While Sindhi media regularly reports incidents of violence, the mainstream press covers murders of prominent persons from time to time. The murder of IBA professor Dr Ajmal Sawand in April 2023 in Kandhkot was widely reported. According to the police, the murder was perpetrated by members of the Sundrani clan, who had long-standing enmity with the Sawand tribe purportedly over a matter of ‘honour’. Speakers at the WAF event talked about how women are often directly targeted in these conflicts. They are kidnapped or even killed. Indirectly, women and children are gravely impacted when all men in their family, often bread earners, become vulnerable to violence. Criminal practices such as bride-swapping persist to resolve feuds between clans. To tackle tribal violence, we must first understand it. Journalist Riaz Sohail, speaking at the WAF event, shared insights from the field that complicate the conventional understanding of the nature of tribal violence. Clans in Sindh that identify themselves today as tribes are not necessarily historical groups. Many of them are modern associations and should be likened to criminal gangs. Self-appointed ‘sardars’ or tribal chiefs claim to lead these groups, but these sardars are not necessarily persons with any generational claim to the title. In this sense, many of the so-called tribes in Sindh today may not be very different from criminal gangs in urban areas or from the Italian mafia families popularised…

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Jirga, A Tribal Justice System in Pakistan and Afghanistan

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  • Post category:Law
  • Reading time:160 mins read

CHAPTER 1 THE JIRGA On hearing the word “Jirga”, the first question that comes to mind is what is Jirga? There are many different views on the nature and scope of the term Jirga. Most would describe it as an indigenous institution for dispute resolution in the Pukhtoon communities. Yes, it is, but is it more than this as well? Frozen in the history as the Pukhtoon nation froze, Jirga is an old custom with unmatched potentials for conflict resolution in the Pukhtoon belt of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a name given to the model, in which a Pukhtoon society operates, to undertake issues between individuals and between communities, to address concerns, and look for solutions acceptable to all stakeholders. As a blueprint of Pukhtoon life, Jirga is best summarized as a strategic exchange between two or more people to address an issue through verbal communication. The exchange may or may not result in an agreement on the issue, but the process itself leads the parties, including the interveners, to maintain a certain level of formal communication, thus ensuring peace. To a common person, Jirga is a body comprised of local, elderly, and influential men in Pukhtoon communities who undertake dispute resolution, primarily through the process of arbitration. Compared to the judicial system of the present day governments, Jirga ensures a fast and cheap justice to the people. Indigenous to Pukhtoon tribal communities, Jirga is alive even in the areas now influenced by an Anglo-Saxon legal system and is used for interpersonal…

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