Awais Ali Mait’s only source of income, a buffalo, has been stolen from his backyard, and he is in a fix what to do.

He retired from the Irrigation Department some years back, and has been living in the suburbs of Basirpur town of Okara district in Punjab. Being an honest and upright man, he has always tried to spend his life within his means.

Whatever money he got on his retirement from the government, he spent on building his house and marrying off his only daughter. Now he and his old ailing wife are living in their two-room red-brick house with a large backyard. He also bought a buffalo and a cow to make a livelihood by selling their milk.

However, the news about the theft of his buffalo came as a bombshell for him. The first thing suggested by almost all his neighbours was registration of a case against the thieves. But Awais Ali Mait knows well he cannot afford going to a police station. He knows that he will have to spend money for not only registration of an FIR (First Information Report), but also for pursuing his case. And even after spending of a few thousand rupees, there is no guarantee that the police will take any action on his complaint and recover his buffalo.

That is why the old, seasoned man decided to go to the village panchayat (council of elders) for the recovery of his stolen buffalo. Being an old dweller of the area, he could guess as to who could be the suspected thieves and which biradaries (clans) they might come from.

According to the panchayat rules, heads of the suspected biradaries were called. In the presence of a large number of the village people, the panchayat members asked the heads of suspected biradaries to declare on the Holy Quran that no member of their respective clans was involved in the theft of the buffalo. They were given some time to discuss the issue amongst their biradari members and then come up prepared to swear on the Holy Quran that all their biradari members were innocent.

It took almost two hours to discuss as to who had stolen the buffalo. All the heads had discussed the theft issue within their biradaries and one of them unearthed the truth. Awais Ali Mait could not get back the same buffalo, but another one, as a result of the panchayat decision. The real one had been sold out and the buyer had taken it to some other region, meanwhile. However, Mait is happy he got a buffalo without wasting any more money and is content with it, though he does not get as much milk from this buffalo as he used to get from the stolen one.

And now the story of another panchayat!

This panchayat was held in Chak 15 of Kacha Koh town, about 12 kilometres away from Khanewal city. The panchayat was called by a local landlord Raja Mehbub, who levelled serious allegations against Maryam Bibi about her character. The panchayat, under the influence of the landlord, ordered that Maryam, the mother of five, should be stoned to death.

Five men of the same village carried out the panchayat ‘verdict’ in her home in the wee hours. Her husband, Sarfraz, was allegedly abducted, reportedly on offering resistance. A horrific crime and shameless act on the part of any society.

When the incident was reported in the local press, the Supreme Court took suo motu action. Later on, the initial investigation revealed that Maryam Bibi was cutting grass in the fields of Raja Mehbub when he allegedly attacked her to submit to his sexual advances. She refused, making the landlord very angry. Resultantly, she had to die a very painful death.

The above two panchayat proceedings produced two poles apart results, and as many opinions also. There are a large number of people, including politicians and legal brains in the country, especially those with a rural background, who believe that the panchayat system is a good alternative judicial system which could provide the litigants with swift and inexpensive justice. Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said in his party manifesto that “A Panchayat System, with specific rules and regulations, would be introduced at the local level to perform primarily as arbitration forums and as Small Causes Courts.”

However, the other opinion is stronger and is advocated by a huge majority. In the past, various panchayat decisions were severely criticised. One such decision that was even highlighted by the world press was about the gang-rape of Mukhtaran Mai on the orders of a panchayat.

A study on judicial systems also called for abolishing quasi-judicial forums including panchayats and jirgas, special courts and tribunals, as those are against the constitution and tend to cause more harm than provide speedy and efficient justice. The recommendations were given in ‘A Study of Formal and Informal Legal Systems Prevalent in Pakistan’, conducted by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW).

Anis Haroon, former chairperson of NCSW, believes that all cases should only be entrusted to the regular courts with full-time judges at the district level at the first stage. She says that parallel legal forums lead to prolonged litigation as, sooner or later, the disputes are taken up at the judicial forums. This leads to prolonged litigation and puts the litigants in a more adverse situation.

Anis Haroon says that the parallel legal system affected women the most. In a society where there is no regard for laws, this system creates chaos. She believes that jirgas and panchayats always end up giving a biased judgment and usually it’s the victim that receives the penalty.

According to Haroon, there are many, many more cases that go unreported. While some incidents do get reported in Sindh and the Punjab, violence against women has continued to escalate over the years. In 1993, the jirga system was formally abolished in Balochistan but, unfortunately, it continues to date due to the Sardari system.

However, Lubna Mansoor, regional director Punjab, Ministry of Human Rights, Pakistan, does not agree with Haroon’s viewpoint fully. She believes panchayats and jirgas could help provide cheap and inexpensive justice to the people at grass-roots level if brought under an organised system and manned by educated and sensible people.

Talking to TNS at her New Muslim Town office in Lahore, Mansoor admits that majority of verdicts given by the panchayats and jirgas in the near past have been damaging for the helpless including women and favourable for the influential. However, she believes that if the panchayats and jirgas are made part of the judicial system, they could produce good results and deliver. However, enhancing literacy rate and creating awareness among the people is a prerequisite, Lubna Mansoor says.