KHAIRPUR, March 8: District Nazim Nafisa Shah has said that despite her directives, the Khairpur police are not ready to register FIRs of women who have been tortured, kidnapped or exploited.

She was speaking at a seminar on "Violence Against Women" jointly organized by some NGOs and the district government at Sachal Auditorium here on Monday to mark International Women's Day.

She said that a law should be enacted to bring an end to jirga system and courts should provide relief to those who had become victims of jirga system, feudal culture or police.

Ms Shah said that due to feudal culture, excesses were being committed with women and jirga was used as a tool in this regard. She said that the national and provincial of the past had failed to enact laws to protect women while obsolete traditions regarding women were still in practice.

Speaking on the occasion, Additional Sessions Judge Faheem Siddiqui said that exploitation of women began when a mother gave priority to her son over her daughter in their childhood. He added that when the son became adult, he continued to get the priority which he was given during his childhood.

He said that torture of women began with domestic violence against them. He said that courts had provided justice to oppressed and victimized women within the limits of law.

MPA Dr Mehreen Bhutto, Shah Abdul Latif University Registrar Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah and NGO activists also spoke at the seminar. The seminar adopted a resolution demanding a ban on Jirga system, production of Balkh Sher Mahar and Shaista Almani in the court and registration of murder case for the killings committed on the pretext of Karo-kari.

ELECTRICITY: Power supply remained suspended for about five hours here on Monday without any prior information as a result business activities were badly affected.

The traders' leader, Faqir Ubaidullah Memon, in a statement threatened that the traders would file a petition in the high court against Hesco for frequently resorting to suspension of power supply.

TEACHERS: On the call of the Primary Teachers' Association, the teachers observed a token hunger strike at Chatti Chowk here on Monday to pressure the education authorities to accept their demands.

The demands include restoration of job quota for teachers' offspring and desert allowance and turning the services of teachers employed on contractual basis to regular ones.