Human rights groups ask NWFP Govt. to ban 'bride price' to curb women Trafficking

Peshawar, Jan. 18 (ANI): In a bid to counter women trafficking, legal experts and human right groups have asked the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Government to immediately ban 'bride price' in the province.

The demand came at a two-day consultative workshop on countering women trafficking organized by the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) in collaboration with DFID (UK Department for International Development) and UNDP (United Nation Development Programme) under the Gender Justice and Protection Project (GJP).

The workshop covered both legal and humanitarian aspects of women trafficking.

Suring the workshop, Anis Badshah Bukhari, additional registrar of Peshawar High Court, highlighted the legal aspect of women trafficking and demanded that all sections pertaining to the punishment of perpetrators must be amended to address the issue comprehensively.

The Daily Times quoted Federal Ombudsman Director Mashood Mirza as saying that every year hundreds of thousands of women and children are trafficked and used in heinous crimes like prostitution, bonded labor and inhuman sports like camel race.

Human rights activist Rakhshanda Naz lamented the poor performance of Pakistan in the TIP report of 2009 that placed it on tier 2 watch list.

"Early child marriages, IDPs influx and rapid surge in poverty in the recent past have also contributed to the trafficking of women and girls," she said.

CAMP Chief Executive Naveed Ahmad Shinwari said that drastic reforms in laws and inter-institutional coordination among the law-enforcement agencies and CSOs would help curb the problem. (ANI)