KP slaps ban on Dowry

[WebGuru]

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly adopted a landmark piece of legislation on Thursday, barring a bride’s family members, relatives and outsiders from making dowry payments to the groom and his family.

The law also restricts the maximum value of gifts given to the bride by her parents, family members or any other person to Rs10,000. It is now illegal for anyone from the groom’s family or anyone on their behalf to ask or force the bride’s family for dowry. If they still do, they shall be liable to a two-month prison term and a fine of Rs300,000 or both.

The law titled, ‘the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dowry, Bridal Gift and Marriage Functions Restriction Act, 2017,’ states that the total expenditures on marriages, including on baarats or valimas shall not exceed Rs75,000 and other ceremonies, including nikah, baraat or valima shall be concluded before 10pm.

Similarly, the law restricts the valima to a one-dish banquet of rice, gravy and sweets. It also states that a person or family celebrating the nikah or baraat or organising the marriage ceremony of other person shall not serve or allow anyone to meals or other edibles, excluding beverages, to people participating in the ceremony.

Under the law, anyone who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of this law shall be liable to pay a fine not less than Rs200,000 and an imprisonment term not exceeding two months.

The bill, tabled by the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Rashda Riffat, was unanimously adopted by the house.

Services of more than 3,000 employees of the health and irrigation departments were regularised after the adoption of two separate laws tabled by Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Sardar Fakhar Azam Khan.

The assembly also adopted a resolution asking the provincial government to include chapters on the life of celebrated humanitarian and charity founder Abdul Sattar Edhi in textbooks taught in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.


Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1344507/k-p-slaps-ban-dowry/

 

[WebGuru]

A good move but i don't think they can implement it.

 

[ExpressPacer]

What a great policy. Imran Khan has focused more on domestic issues and IMPORTANT issues in KPK like Education, Health, Police, Courts rather than spending entire budget on infrastructure. However, even the roads and the bridges and the flyovers are there. Maintains a balance. Terrific. Absolutely terrific.

 

[Saeed]

Good move. If I am not wrong a similar law already exists for the whole Pakistan. Pakistan's problem is that no one implements laws.http://www.aghslaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dowry__Bridal_Gifts_Restriction_Act_1976.pdf

 

[WebGuru]

Anti-dowry act

As if it wasn’t already difficult enough for a woman in Pakistan, there is this bile-inducing custom to have a woman weighed in against what material and monies she brings into a marriage. Dowry determines a woman’s worth in this culture. About 95% marriages are said to practise the custom that is not built on functional need but a status symbol and a show of women’s subservience. Seemingly the more dowry a woman has, the more her takers will be and therefore the less dispensable she is. Less dispensable women are apparently treated by in-laws with more kindness. Not really.

Whereas India has the highest number of dowry-related deaths, it is Pakistan that has the highest number of dowry-linked deaths per 100,000 women. We murder and hack to death, via stove burnings and poison ingestion than any other country in the world. No amount of money gets in-laws to stop torturing new brides to seek more cash from their families. No wonder there is a funeral-like feel to a household a girl child is born to. Our customs are meant to stifle the caretakers of girls as if they bear the burden of a curse and the only way to make it up is cough up dough to marry off the girl.

This is not just a class issue. The elite in our country — do check the latest few destination weddings in our social magazines — are just as marred by it. Show more love and dote with money, flounder it across the far seas so everyone knows not to mess with your daughter. Why not equip them with the law instead? Teach them to stand up for their rights first.

K-P, in a landmark move, has barred a bride’s family from making dowry payments to the groom and his family. So basically the groom and his family have to make alternative means of extorting money, or for a change find a job or start a business. The K-P law restricts value of gifts given by the bride to Rs10,000. It is enough to buy a good juice blender, a hair dryer, a low-end vacuum cleaner or a few good books.

It’s time for men to seek out women for who they are and not what they bring. Dowry is an evil custom. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Dowry, Bridal Gift and Marriage Functions Restriction Act of 2017 has thankfully put an end to it as far as the law in K-P is concerned. It’s one of the few sensible pro-women legislation to come out of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

Last year in December a woman called Shumaila was forced to consume poison in Multan when her father could not pay her husband and in-laws the promised Rs50,000 in dowry. Shumaila, like the estimated 2,000 dowry deaths per year in Pakistan, are an abomination and tell that we are a nation on the brink. Don’t be fooled by the mere gains in our standing — women remain a severely neglected in all parts of our society. Rights experts say that this number is hardly reflective of how many women are actually tortured because of the heinous custom and many of their deaths remain unreported and marked falsely natural.

Pervasive in the middle class, we are extremely proud of the list of things we bring with us into our marriages — our cars, our washing machines, our furniture and the godforsaken toaster — these are spoils of the war on women. Reject it. Reject it as the girl bride, reject it as the father of the bride and certainly reject it as the groom. There is nothing dignified in it. Women must only be armed with one resource that is the real true asset for any family — their education, their aptitude, their ability to brace uncertainties like death and disease and more importantly their sense of justice. Don’t compromise on this. Everything else can be acquired, especially the toaster.

Now that we are making strides in banning dowry, can we look to please increase the haq mehr that the groom needs to pay the bride. This amount is to be allocated according to the groom and his family’s social standing but instead it is set as a pathetic token amount. This amount is payable to the woman on demand according to Islamic law. Fix the haq mehr according to the intended standard and notice how the balance of power shifts. For a start, fewer women like Shumaila will be dead by poisoning.


Source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1345406/anti-dowry-act/

 

[DW44]

This will be so hard to implement. KPK public are known for resisting government interference in their stone age cultural activities(which is why jirgas that keep handing over women to random men like candy still exist) and no government will be willing to take on their own voter base. Will become even harder over the next few years as FATA is integrated into KPK because those dudes are on a whole different level of backwardness and extremely defensive about it, even compared to KPK which is no mean feat. A paper law much like Punjab's now neutered women protection bill that will be of no consequence in the real world.

 

[Waseem]

This will be so hard to implement. KPK public are known for resisting government interference in their stone age cultural activities(which is why jirgas that keep handing over women to random men like candy still exist) and no government will be willing to take on their own voter base. Will become even harder over the next few years as FATA is integrated into KPK because those dudes are on a whole different level of backwardness and extremely defensive about it, even compared to KPK which is no mean feat. A paper law much like Punjab's now neutered women protection bill that will be of no consequence in the real world.

Agreed! EXTREMELY hard to implement, probably more challenging than most laws they have introduced. Change of mindset is reuired more than laws and regulations on this particular issue at least.

 

[troodon]

I thought Dowry was a Hindu thing.

 

[Moiza]

A brilliant law but won't get implemented.

 

[PakLFC]

Families will continue to demand dowry and weddings will last for weeks. We all know in Pakistan such things only look good on paper. If Nawaz is found guilty perhaps it could then have some practical effect.

 

[Major]

ridiculous law.

THis will never get implemented.

A better way of controlling cost of Marriages is simply banning Mehndis and Barats. Walima should be the only dinner thats it.

But no one will do this, as many of these politicians or their friends have money invested in the shadee hall business.

 

[srh]

I thought Dowry was a Hindu thing.

most of muslims of Indian subcontinent were hindus before so some hindu customs are still prevalent among muslims unfortunately