Karhai (Teega)

Kanrrey or Teega is another custom among the Pukhtoons, which stands for cessation of blood-shed between contending parties. Teega (lit. putting down of a stone) in other words means a temporary truce declared by a Jirga. The word stone is used figuratively as actually no stone is put at the time of the cessation of hostilities. Once the truce is enforced, no party dares violate it for fear of punitive measures.

When hostilities break out between two rival factions and firing starts from house tops and surrounding hills, a tribal Jirga intervenes to restore peace and prevent blood-shed. In case of firing, there is no security of life and property and death hangs over the feuding factions like the sword of Democles. The Jirga, consisting of local tribal elders and religious divines, declares a Teega after full deliberations and in consultations with the parties concerned and declares a truce for a specified period on pain of a Nagha or fine. Nagha is paid by the party which violates the truce. The objective underlying Teega is to restore normal conditions by holding the feelings of enmity in abeyance, cooling down tempers and providing an opportunity to the two sides to settle their dispute amicably through tribal elders on the principles of justice and fair-play. The parties generally, strictly adhere to the terms of the truce. Any one of the contending parties which commits a breach of the truce is punished with a heavy fine.

If the party guilty of violating the truce declines to pay the prescribed amount of fine, the Jirga proceeds to recover it forcibly. This may be in the form of burning of the houses of the rebel group, its expulsion from the locality or banishment from the tribe. This task is accomplished with the help of a tribal lashkar, composed of armed tribesmen. No one can, therefore, violate the truce because of such stringent action. Here the Jirga's action resembles U.N. General Assembly's action against any rebel government. The General Assembly applies economic sanctions against a defiant government, which may be in-effective because the General Assembly has no authority to enforce it or compel member countries to abide by its decision, but orders of a Jirga cannot be ignored or side-tracked in any form or manner.