Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, charged with presiding over a "jirga" that gave away five young girls as a form of compensation, and Israr Ullah Zehri, who recently made international headlines after defending the burying alive of women in "honour-killing" cases, have been elevated to ministry positions.

Last year the supreme court ordered the arrest of the Oxford-educated Mr Bijarani over the allegations, though he remained at liberty. He has been made minister for education. Street protests and angry newspapers editorials met the induction of the two ministers.

"It is a very clear message from the Government that they don't care about these things," said Samar Minallah, a human rights campaigner who had brought the court case against Mr Bijarani. "I think they deliberately chose these two people to be ministers to send that message."

The practice of settling disputes by awarding girls taken from the family of those convicted by a traditional meeting of village elders to an aggrieved party is illegal but it continues in rural areas. Mr Bijarani is accused of heading a jirga in 2006, in which five girls, aged between two and five, were given as compensation to the family of a murdered man.

Mr Bijarani, who denies the allegations, is a stalwart of the Pakistan People's Party, an avowedly progressive party that leads the coalition Government.

The party came to power with the restoration of democracy earlier this year, following eight years of military rule under Pervez Musharraf. The Government is led by Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Zardari, as President.

Iqbal Haider, co-chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "The basic character of the cabinet is in support of honour killings. Had Benazir Bhutto been alive, she would never have allowed this."

Mr Zehri, a member of a minor party in the coalition, has been made minister for postal services. Earlier this year, in response to news that three teenage girls had been buried alive for trying to choose husbands, he told the parliament it was a "tribal tradition".

Guardian News & Media