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Society’s democratic achievements

Dispensing justice is undoubtedly the noblest public activity. An important measure of a society’s democratic achievements is the civil rights enjoyed by its members. Without civil liberties. Freedom of religion and conscience, expression, association, choice of spouse and so on. other rights (political, social and economic) cannot be enjoyed meaningfully. The individual must have the freedom to choose his way of life within the bounds of law and public decency.

First of all, there are forced marriages in which the girl is coerced into marrying a man she does not like or approve of. She can be subjected to various types of physical and mental tortures. In some cases the punishment can be murder by the family members obsessed with ‘family honor’.

Then, there are marriages contracted between minors. It means that children, both boys and girls, are married to each other when they are minors. A variation of such marriages is a minor girl married to an old man, normally a wealthy man.
Another variation of forced marriage is exchange marriages known as ‘Shighaar’ or ‘Watta Satta’. In such a situation a brother and sister are married off to another pair of siblings. He notes that discord in one family tends to affect the other family.

Then there are so-called ‘Haq Bakhshi’ marriages. These are extremely bizarre. The main consideration in such a marriage is that the family property should remain within the family or clan. Therefore, if a cousin is not available for marriage the girl is ‘married’ to the Holy Quran. , this marriage is totally un-Islamic.

Another type of forced marriage is ‘Vani’. A young girl of marriageable age or even younger is given as a compensation for settlement of a dispute. Most often such disputes refer to murder.

So law enforcement agencies should declared forced nikah invalid will serve as an authoritative precedent that outlaws all kinds of forced marriages. One day we might even want the state to declare marriage a matter of free and voluntary choice between two human beings irrespective of their religion, sect, race or caste as the relevant UN conventions prescribe.



Manaqib Irtaqa
karachi

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Private Tuitions and Coaching Centers

Sir,

I want to draw the attention on increasing no of private tuitions and coaching centers. Today we see rapid increase of coaching centers. Now it’s become a business of very well known professors.

Professors demand high fees from students. On the other hand they didn’t teach in colleges instead teaching thy provide their notes of coaching’s. So one could must think what was the use of such teachers in colleges parents usually faced great difficulty because they have to pay the double fees. Parents compel to send their children’s to coaching’s because the want to see them in good universities.

Student must take coaching necessary because they can’t understand what their teachers taught them. In each area there were at least 3 to 4 coaching centers.

Government must take the notice of these coaching centers. They should pay a visit to different colleges of check the standard of education thy provide.



RAFIA ZUBAIR
KARACHI UNIVERSITY