ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: Fourteen people have been arrested on the directive of the prime minister following an appeal for help by the families of five girls of Mianwali to the president and the Supreme Court to save their daughters from the custom of vani.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar said this here on Tuesday after distributing among quake survivors relief goods donated by the All China Women’s Federation.

She said police would investigate the case and those found involved in vani, a custom under which women are offered in marriage or in compensation to settle debts or disputes, would be tried under the honour killing law. Minimum punishment for such a crime is 10 years imprisonment, she added.

Ms Bakhtiar said the government had learnt that the parents had been trying to politicize the matter in order to escape the payment of debts they had borrowed from the opposite parties.

She said that lack of awareness among the masses was one of the reasons why the honour killing law had not been implemented in letter and in spirit, allowing tribal people in different parts of the country to practise the custom of vani.

In reply to a question, she said that enforcement of such laws always took time and emphasized the need for creating awareness among the masses about the evil of violence against women.

The adviser said that 10 crisis centres had been set up in the country where complaints about crimes against women could be lodged. In most cases, she added, people did not approach those centres directly.

She said majority of the women contacting these centres wanted not to be identified in media. Last week, she said, the crisis centre in Islamabad alone registered 119 cases, of which 12 pertained to honour killing.

She said the government was taking various steps to check crimes against women and that was why detaining women in police stations for any reason after Maghrib had been prohibited.

She said police had also been directed to take along a policewoman whenever they interrogated a woman. Similarly, she added, if police wanted to take a woman to the police station for investigation they would also take with them a male member of the same family who would accompany her during the investigation.

Earlier, Cultural Counsellor Chinese Embassy Shaun Boaxiang handed over the relief goods to the adviser.