Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) has asked the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for taking notice of a Sawara case of a minor girl in Upper Dir. The demand has been made through a letter written by Imran Takkar, Programme Manager SPARC, to the caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Through that letter, SPARC brought into notice the violation of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC).
It said that Pakistan has signed and ratified the said Convention and according to its articles 19 and 37 it's the state responsibility to protect children from all kind of abuse and exploitation. The letter has drawn the attention of the KP Chief Minister towards a news story published in national newspaper that around 200 people from 25 surrounding villages decided that a teenager girl aged 12 years of Doog Dara in district Upper Dir would be married forcefully in the name of Swara for settlement of a dispute. It is said in the letter to CM that the girl latter ran away from home with her brother in disagreement of the brutal harmful tradition practice because the Jirga members and her uncle forced her father to implement the decision.
Imran Takkar said that the act of forced marriage is the clear violation of the injunction of Islam, prevailing laws and UN convention on the rights of the child. It is requested in the letter that the provincial government should take immediate action in the circumstances of the case, so that the ends of justice could be met and to avoid future such like incidents of gross violations of prevailed laws and Pakistan's international commitments.