ISLAMABAD: Matthew Hayden has been impressed by the “sporting brotherhood” on display after Pakistan beat India to break its run of 12 losses in World Cup contests between the archrivals.
India captain Virat Kohli embraced Mohammad Rizwan soon after Pakistan romped to a 10-wicket win in the Twenty20 World Cup game on Sunday to start its Super 12 campaign.

Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, now a mentor with the team, smiled as he spoke with Pakistan players including captain Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik and fast bowler Shahnawaz Dahani soon after the game ended.

“The thing that inspired me the most out of the performance was the fantastic sporting brotherhood,” Hayden, an intensely competitive former Australia opening batsman now working with the Pakistan's T20 squad, said in a video message from Dubai.

The political tension between the subcontinental neighbors has resulted in the countries avoiding bilateral cricket series since Pakistan visited India in 2012-13 and played a short limited-overs series. However, they compete against each other regularly in the ICC tournaments.

Hayden said the way the Pakistan and Indian players came together was a good example “of how we should treat each other as people.”

“That’s the role of sport, so it’s beautiful to see those moments where MS Dhoni is holding court with a few of the (Pakistan) players and Virat Kohli and (Rizwan), you know, in brotherhood, joining hands after there was heated battles in the middle.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board appointed Hayden as a batting consultant and South African Vernon Philander as a bowling consultant for the T20 World Cup after head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis stepped down.
Hayden joined the squad in the United Arab Emirates, following his stint as a commentator in the Indian Premier League which ended two days before the World Cup began on Oct. 17.

Following Pakistan’s record-breaking win, Babar reminded his teammates to stay focused on winning the World Cup instead of getting carried away with the win over India.

“Great humility from our perspective inside the change rooms, not getting carried away too much with the celebrations, but just this great humility, this great sense of spirit and great sense of purpose moving into the next game against New Zealand," he said.

Fast bowler Shaheen Afridi’s burst in his opening two overs provided Pakistan with the key wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul and helped restrict India to 151-7. Afridi also went on to take the wicket of top-scorer Kohli in his return spell.

For Hayden, it was a prime example of what Pakistan's pacemen are capable of producing.

“Pakistan has velocity in abundance, not just here but also back home that aren’t celebrating in this World Cup,” he said. “Shaheen really is that one leader within the bowling group ... nothing beats velocity, mixed up with some skill.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court (FSC) has declared ‘un-Islamic’ the tradition of Swara, a practice in which girls, often minors, are given in marriage or servitude to an aggrieved family as compensation to end disputes, local media reported.
A three-judge bench headed by FSC Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Meskenzai said the tradition of giving away minor girls to settle disputes was against the injunctions of Islam, Dawn newspaper reported.
The petitioner, a woman called Sakeena Bibi, said swara, often the result of punishment decided by a council of tribal elders called a jirga or panchayat, usurped the fundamental rights of a woman or young girl.
“It argued that jirga or panchayat misconstrued the concept ‘badl-i-sulah’ — compensation to settle a dispute by offering a young girl to the aggrieved family. The petitioner requested the court to declare this custom as illegal,” Dawn reported.
Dr. Mohammad Aslam Khaki, a jurist consult at the FSC, said swara violated at least four fundamental rights.
“According to him, since the girl is offered by the accused family, she in most of the cases is deprived of even basic facilities, hence subjected to discrimination. Secondly, she is wedded to a man without her consent. Thirdly, she is not entitled to dowry, and fourthly, she cannot file legal suit for khula — dissolution of marriage,” Khaki said.
Though laws in 2005 and 2011 have declared swara illegal, the custom still continues to be practiced in many parts of Pakistan.
In 2004, the Sindh High Court outlawed all such “parallel justice” systems. But the writ of government is weak in rural areas of the country, and local police often turn a blind eye.