Day: March 30, 2007

BANNU: While official count of the by-election for NA-26 Bannu was delayed following thrashing of teachers on election duty by the police, the supporters of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani’s son Ziad Durrani was claiming that he has conclusively won by a huge margin.

Workers of JUI-F and MMA based in the house of Chief Minister Durrani in his native Bannu said their calculations showed that Ziad Durrani had polled more than 70,000 votes. Different leaders of the party said that he had obtained from 76,000 to 78,000 votes.

Earlier, former MMA senator Qari Abdullah said Ziad Durrani had got more than 65,000 votes. The JUI-F and MMA activists said their figures were collected from polling agents deployed at all 275 polling stations in Bannu. However, there was no official or independent confirmation of their claims.

The three candidates who contested against Ziad Durrani fared very poorly in the election. Supporters of Ziad Durrani and other sources said independent candidate Abdul Hafeez advocate received 2,700 votes and became the runner up. In the third place was Dr Habibullah of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party with 2,400 votes. Malik Ashfaq of PPPP was in the fourth position with 2,100 votes only.

All the losing candidates accused the MMA government in NWFP and Chief Minister Durrani of using official machinery to facilitate Ziad Durrani’s victory. They alleged that armed men loyal to JUI-F used coercive methods to influence election staff and voters. They also said that they had sent their complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan with specific instances of rigging and illegal practices.

Meanwhile, a crisis developed here late Thursday evening when about 35 university and college teachers on election duty went on strike after being beaten up by police in the courtroom of returning officer Asghar Khilji in the district courts. They went to the university and staged a sit-in and refused to hand over the ballot boxes and election material to the returning officer. They alleged that the returning officer ordered police action against them and forced them out of the courtroom.

The teachers were already angry over poor arrangements for the by-election and were irritated further after being kept waiting for hours outside the court of the returning officer. Meanwhile, women were kept out of the election process in different parts of the NA-26 constituency through local arrangement by representatives of political parties and religious elders. The community leaders in a large number of union councils made agreements not to allow poling for women.

Source: The News

Date:3/30/2007

KARACHI: Women in Pakistan are continuously subjected to violence as the judiciary turns a blind eye to their plight. Traditional customs, domestic disputes are among the major reasons for violence against women.

According to a survey conducted by Daily Times, the facts and figures given by Madadgar, Aurat Foundation, Gender of Justice and Women’s Trust revealed that 11,703 Pakistani women became victims of violence in 2006.

822
Number of women who committed suicide. Sindh had the highest casualty with 385 women who committed suicide, followed by Punjab where 358 women committed suicide, while 66 women in NWFP and 13 in Balochistan died in cases of suicide.

1,288
Number of women murdered. In Punjab, 647 women were killed, followed by Sindh where 412 women were murdered. NWFP was witness to the killing of 206 women while 23 women were killed in Balochistan.

792
Number of honour killing cases reported. Sindh registered 458 cases while Punjab registered 264. NWFP filed 43 cases and Balochistan filed 27. In Karachi alone, 37 women were killed in the name
of honour.

119
Number of cases where women were sold against murders committed. In Punjab, 53 women were used to settle disputes such as these, while 33 women met the same fate in Sindh, 7 in NWFP and 26 in Balochistan.

192
Number of women burnt to death as a result of family feuds. As many as 92 of these women belonged to Punjab, while 87 were residents of Sindh and 12 were from NWFP. Only 1 woman in Balochistan died as a result of immolation.

7,534
Number of women who were tortured for various reasons. The highest number of women who were tortured belonged to Punjab and amounted to 4,457. Sindh was second in the list with 2,415 women being subjected to torture, while 522 women were tortured in NWFP and 140 belonged to Balochistan.

481
Number of sexual harassment cases reported. Punjab reported 358 cases, Sindh reported 88, NWFP reported 22 and Balochistan reported 13.

259
Number of gang-rapes reported. Of these women, 194 were raped in Punjab, 58 in Sindh, 6 in NWFP and 1 in Balochistan. There were 9 women gang-raped in Karachi alone.

20
Number of women killed to avenge family feuds. As many as 13 were killed in Punjab and the remaining 7 from Sindh. No such cases were reported from other parts of the country.

196
Number of women who suffered harassment or were tortured by the police. Punjab reported 89 cases, while Sindh reported 81, with 20 in Karachi, and NWFP reported 25. Only 1 case was reported in Balochistan.

Source: Daily Times

Date:3/30/2007