KARACHI: At least two men have been arrested in South Pakistan after a woman in her 20’s was found tortured to death along a main highway last week following a row with her husband’s family involving the tribal tradition of ‘watta satta’ or bride exchange, a senior police official told Arab News on Saturday.
The tradition is a form of marriage involving an arranged, reciprocal exchange of spouses between two families, where a pair usually consisting of a brother and sister are married from one family to another pair from another family-- usually a bride for a bride.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the woman’s husband, his brother and another relative by the deceased’s father on the insistence of police.
“We arrested the woman’s husband and his brother who confessed to torturing her but said she was at her father’s home [at the time of death]. Due to this and the suspicious behavior of the father, we are also investigating him,” Jamshoro’s senior superintendent of police, Amjad Sheikh, told Arab News.
The deceased, identified as Waziran Chachar, was married five years ago with the understanding that her brother would eventually be married to her husband’s sister, a custom built on a common promise in Pakistan’s rural areas.
“When Waziran’s father demanded their girl for his son, the family refused,” a local police officer, Rasool Bux Shaikh, told Arab News.
Following the refusal, a row broke out between the families, and two weeks ago Waziran’s father brought her to his home, threatening divorce until a jirga-- an assembly of local elders and leaders-- convinced him to let her go back to her husband’s home.
Waziran’s body was found in the early hours of the morning on June 28 along the Indus highway near the village of Wada Chhachar in Sindh where she lived, Shaikh said.
The custom of Watta Satta, which translates to ‘give and take,’ has long been criticized by human rights organizations due to its underlying threat of retaliation and violence meted out to women as punishments in case of family rows.
According to the results of an initial post-mortem report, Waziran was killed by a blunt weapon. The police are waiting on more conclusive results.
“This can be a car, stone or any other object which is not sharp. We are investigating the case, and digital forensics (of mobile phones) and a detailed post-mortem report will determine who has killed the woman and how,” SSP Sheikh said.
Pakistani woman tortured to death over bride-exchange row in Sindh province
https://arab.news/vnxaa
Pakistani woman tortured to death over bride-exchange row in Sindh province
- Deceased’s husband and brother-in-law are in police custody
- Rural tradition of ‘Watta Satta’ usually translates into ‘a bride for a bride’
Pakistan secures $1.2 billion as IMF clears reviews, flags gains on stability and reforms
- IMF praises Pakistan’s policy implementation despite challenging global environment and climate-driven shocks
- The Executive Board urges faster energy, SOE and governance reforms for macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability
KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Pakistan’s second review under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first review of its Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), said a statement on Tuesday, unlocking about $1.2 billion in new financing while praising the country’s progress in stabilizing the economy despite recent floods.
The decision taken by the IMF Executive Board allows Islamabad to draw $1 billion under the EFF and $200 million under the RSF, bringing total disbursements under both arrangements to about $3.3 billion. The Fund said Pakistan’s policy implementation had improved financing conditions, strengthened reserves and preserved stability even as the country faced a challenging global environment and climate-driven shocks.
Under the 37-month EFF, approved last year in September, the IMF noted strong fiscal performance, including a primary surplus of 1.3 percent of GDP, a rebound in gross reserves to $14.5 billion by end-FY25 from $9.4 billion a year earlier and progress on rebuilding confidence. It noted a surge in inflation due to flood-related food price spikes but said it was expected to ease.
“Pakistan’s reform implementation under the EFF arrangement has helped preserve macroeconomic stability in the face of several recent shocks,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Nigel Clarke said. “Real GDP growth has accelerated, inflation expectations have remained anchored, and fiscal and external imbalances have continued to moderate.”
Clarke said Islamabad’s commitment to meeting its FY26 primary balance target while also addressing urgent post-flood relief signaled strong fiscal intent. He urged continued tax policy simplification and base broadening to build space for climate resilience, social protection and public investment.
The IMF official maintained a tight monetary stance should be continued to keep inflation within the State Bank Pakistan’s target range, while allowing exchange-rate flexibility and deepening the interbank market.
Additionally, he said financial regulation enforcement and capital market development were essential for a resilient financial sector.
The IMF also flagged energy sector reforms as “critical to safeguarding viability,” noting that timely tariff adjustments had helped curb circular debt but that Pakistan must now focus on reducing electricity production and distribution costs and addressing operational inefficiencies in both the power and gas sectors.
The statement also welcomed the publication of Pakistan’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic report, a detailed IMF-supported assessment that maps out where government systems are vulnerable to inefficiency or misuse and recommends reforms to improve transparency, accountability and service delivery.
Further priorities include the privatization of state-owned enterprises and strengthening economic data quality.
Clarke said reducing Pakistan’s climate vulnerability was vital for long-term stability, referring to the RSF, a financing tool that provides long-term, low-cost loans to help countries address climate risks.
“The RSF arrangement is supporting efforts to strengthen natural disaster response and financing coordination, improve the use of scarce water resources, raise climate considerations in project selection and budgeting, and improve the information on climate-related risks in financing decisions,” he said.
Pakistan faced a prolonged economic crisis in recent years before it began implementing stringent IMF-recommended reforms, which have driven a gradual improvement in macroeconomic indicators over the past two years.
The country also remains one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
It has endured a series of extreme weather events in recent years, most notably the 2022 super-floods that submerged one-third of the country, displaced millions and caused an estimated $30 billion in losses.
This year’s floods killed over 1,000 people and caused at least $2.9 billion in damage to agriculture and infrastructure, underscoring the scale of climate pressures facing the economy.
Economic experts told Arab News a day earlier that the Fund’s disbursements under the two loan programs would support the cash-strapped nation, which has relied heavily on financing from bilateral partners such as Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates, as well as multilateral lenders.
“It obviously will help strengthen the external sector, the balance of payments,” said Samiullah Tariq, group head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company.
Another analyst, Shankar Talreja, head of research at Karachi-based Topline Securities, said the move was likely to send a positive signal to domestic and international investors about the government’s commitment to its reform agenda.
“This will help strengthen reserves and will eventually help a rating upgrade going forward,” he said.
