Day: March 20, 2008

A famous quote says: ‘You give me an educated, healthy and brave mother, I will give you an educated, healthy and brave nation’.

Unfortunately the plight of women and their miseries are increasing day by day because women in Pakistan have been denied the enjoyment of a whole range of rights — economic, social, civil and political.

Women are denied not only the right to education, but also the right to decide matters relating to their marriage and divorce. Those denied these rights are more likely to be deprived of the right to legal redress. Often abuses are compounded: poor girls and women are trafficked and subjected to forced marriage, forced prostitution or exploitative work situations such as bonded labour. These deprivations are manifestation of discrimination against women and girls in Pakistan, especially in tribal areas of Sindh are common.

Domestic violence and physical abuse, which includes rape, acid throwing, burning, and ‘honour’ killings is still widespread. Pakistan is also both a country of origin and a transit country for the trafficking of women for domestic labour, forced marriage and prostitution. Even a previous minister of the Sindh government, Manzoor Panwar, justified 80 per cent honour killings. There are lack of legal remedies for women fleeing honour killing and other domestic violence, a lack of shelter homes for women, or even couples at risk, an absence of reliable mediation mechanisms to intercede with parents who do not understand or accept women’s rights to freedom of choice in marriage, and an absence of reliable and prompt protection by the state.

While some progress has no doubt been made in bringing the issue of violence against women into the open, much remains to be done.

It is alarming that every year in Sindh alone 30,000 women die due to unavailability of maternal facilities, as well as 50,000 newly-born babies die during pregnancy due to lack of maternal facilities or die in the early days after birth.

I would request the government, civil society, NGOs and donor agencies to play their vital role for the betterment of women in Pakistan.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/20/2008

KARACHI, March 19: The young woman who says she was subjected to rape on the premises of the Mazar-i-Quaid has identified a security guard posted at the mausoleum as one of the suspects, police said.

However, police are yet to formally arrest any suspect in the case registered under Section 365/B of the Pakistan Penal Code. The section was inserted in the PPC through the Protection of Women Act 2006.

An 18-year-old woman was kidnapped from the mazar on the night of March 15. She was found in a semi-conscious state at the main gate of the mazar in the small hours of Monday.

The young woman, resident of Lodhran in Punjab, had come to the city after visiting the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan with her husband, father and others. The group was travelling in two cars. Police said the woman recognized a security guard who was presented before the victim with some other staff of the mausoleum.

“However, when we asked if she was hundred per cent sure about the identification of the security guard, the woman apparently got confused, saying that she was not cent per cent sure,” a senior police officer told Dawn.

The officer said that if the victim had positively identified the suspect, police would have arrested him which would have been followed by an identification parade before the magistrate.

Source: Dawn
Date:3/20/2008

PESHAWAR: Women in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have rejected outright the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and colonial legacy of the political administration, according to a research paper on FATA women.

Samina, a lecturer at University of Peshawar’s Philosophy Department, has written the research paper titled ‘Reforms in FATA and Perspectives of Tribal Women’.

The paper highlights the issues faced by FATA women who, the paper shows, believe that the FCR denies them their right to life, health, education, work, property ownership, and consent to marriage.

“They (tribal women) considered FATA’s special status as the main cause of underdevelopment in the region and demanded the abolishment of the political administration’s colonial legacy and the FCR,” the study paper quoted women as saying.

The paper highlights the absence of women in the existing political administration and local institutions in FATA. It also highlights women’s perspectives on reforms in the Tribal Agencies.

For her research paper, Samina — who uses only one name — selected two FATA agencies as the research sample. Empirical data has been collected from 100 females form the Kurram and Khyber Tribal Agencies. The women interviewed for the paper belonged to various strata of the tribal society including housewives, workingwomen, students, and unemployed but educated youths.

No women representation: The paper observed that women belonging to FATA had neither been consulted nor included in any reform process or committees. It said that no woman, whether tribal or non-tribal, had ever been employed in any cadre in the Political Administration in FATA. Due to the absence of women from the whole system, if women have grievances against their own relatives, they find no recourse.

Similarly, the paper said, in development schemes there was no mechanism to assess women’s needs and demands.

“There has never been an attempt to know if women want schools, colleges, health and skill centres, or income generation projects; and where they want them. Maliks and the political administration, often decide these, in self-interest. A Malik may propose a scheme to political authorities to sell/exchange his land to the government or in return for jobs for himself or his relatives. The primary consideration has never been need or accessibility to women,” the paper quoted FATA women as saying.

Gender-biased justice system: Samina, in her paper, stated that the justice system of FATA is also gender biased. Currently, she said, there were three justice system components that included FCR, Sarkari Jirga (Government Jirga) and Political Administration. Under FCR, in civil and criminal cases Political Agent/Assistant Political Agent constitute a Sarkari Jirga comprising of tribal elders or Maliks. Jirga uses its own methods to determine the innocence or guilt. Jirga sends its recommendations to the Political Agent who either agrees and confirms or rejects and reconstitutes another jirga. The decision and awards given by the Political Agent, executive orders, cannot be challenged in any court of law.

A few women in Khyber Agency registered their complaints of domestic violence in the office of the Political Agent, but their cases were referred to the jirga, which brushed them off saying ‘domestic’ issues were to be solved within the family.

Jirga inefficient: The paper stated that women in Kurram and Khyber Agencies unanimously rejected the myth that jirga was speedy and cost effective. They said jirgas failed to deliver justice as they could easily be manipulated through power and money.

The tribal women demanded that Jirga system should be replaced with Pakistani courts.

The tribal women also strongly condemned special status of FATA holding it responsible for poverty and lack of modern facilities in the Tribal Areas.

The tribal women also stated that their mobility was restricted in the Tribal Areas. Women in FATA consider increased opportunities for education, jobs and recreation absolutely necessary for progress. Regarding the veil, they said, the ‘chadar’ was enough to cover a woman and that women should have the freedom to go out for education, work and, health care.
Source: Daily Times
Date:3/20/2008

LAHORE, March 19: USAID Economic Affairs Director Amy Meyer says Pakistan needs to launch an awareness campaign to change perception towards working women.

Speaking at a conference on ‘Leadership challenges and solutions for women entrepreneurs’ organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Centre for International Private Enterprise here on Wednesday, she stressed the need for career identification coupled with financial assistance for rural women to start their own businesses.

She said the measures would help change the very fate of the country as women comprised more than half of the total population of Pakistan.

The USAID director said if women from the grassroots level were empowered economically, they definitely would have a say in the decision-making process at the institutional and domestic levels.

LCCI Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha said that the chamber was taking all measures for women empowerment in line with government policy as their progress was the progress of society. The chamber not only held seminars and conferences but also arranged training programmes so that maximum women could start their businesses and contribute towards the well-being of the economy.

He said in recent years government had been focusing more on the development of women entrepreneurs but there was a need that some package of incentives should be announced for women entrepreneurs so that they could be able to go global. He also urged women workers to acquire modern techniques for business promotion and come forward with new ideas. Skill enhancement of women and their economic independence was need of the hour.

Centre for International Private Enterprise Country Director Moin Fidda said the primary role of the enterprise was to support its local partners’ efforts to improve the business environment through advocacy and policy dialogue in Pakistan. The centre coordinated the provision of small project grants to associations and think tanks as well as assisted in a public outreach and education programme that would provide material on entrepreneurship and market economics to policymakers, educators, and the business community.

The centre had been working to increase business participation in the democratic process and would implement programs that enhance business knowledge and strengthen the entrepreneurial culture of the private sector.

He said the centre had identified four principal areas to help the business community to become a leading advocate for market-oriented reform and democratic governance. These included a grants programme supporting grassroots networks in developing countries, an award-winning communications strategy, capacity building programmes, and technical assistance through field offices. It recognised that successes in one region might provide a model approach for another.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Women Resource Centre Chairperson Shamim Akhtar stressed the need to train and develop working women.

She said businesswomen should try to develop clusters if they wanted to enter the world market and they must have men onboard with them.

The conference was unique in the sense that it had a good representation from leading educational institutions such as Lahore College for Women’s University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, GC University and social and services sectors.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/20/2008

The 19-year-old girl who went missing on March 15 and was allegedly gang-raped by five employees of the Quaid’s Mausoleum for 36 hours, again went missing after identifying one of the assailants during the identification process on Tuesday night (March 18).

The victim identified the accused, Syed Khadim Hussain Shah, during the identification process at the office of the Resident Engineer, who supervises the employees at the mausoleum.

The girl who, until Tuesday evening, was residing at a shelter home arranged by War Against Rape (WAR) has now gone missing.

The police rejected her testimony by claiming her to be “mentally unstable” after the incident, even though the victim in no way was unprepared or unstable at the time of identification, as observed by The News at the resident engineer’s office.

“I can recognise the men if I see them,” she said as she insisted that the mausoleum’s employees be called at the office for identification which Mohammad Arif, the Resident Engineer of Management, readily agreed to.

The men were called in groups of ten for identification and the process lasted till 11.30 p.m., when she recognised one man.

However, the accused in question has been set free as he is allegedly said to have been employed at the mausoleum on a very high recommendation by the minister for environment, according to reliable sources at WAR. “It is too early to say anything. She identified the wrong man,” the Investigation Officer of the Brigade Police Station, Sabir Hussain, insisted while talking to The News.

It is also learnt from a WAR official, Sarah Zaman, that, after releasing the man, the WAR team was physically forced to leave by Aga Asif Kerbalai, a representative of Jaffria Alliance and a trustee of Shah-e-Khurasan who had been supporting the family with the case and helped them lodge an FIR (50/2008) at the Brigade police station against the mausoleum’s administration.

The physical attack was prompted by the intervention of PPP MPA Shehla Raza, who accused the WAR team of kidnapping the girl, although the WAR team was taking the girl back to the shelter home on a special request by the Investigation Officer.

“The mob attacked the vehicle of the WAR team, dragging the girl out from the back seat, while threatening the WAR members at the same time. All this happened while the police stood there passively and made no efforts to halt the assault,” said Zaman. The WAR officials then left the scene.

Inspector Sabir, however, denied these claims and said the girl has gone to stay with her relatives in Manora along with her father, uncle and husband.

On being questioned about the contact details, he said he did not have the numbers of any. On the other hand, the WAR officials have been receiving calls from the girl’s father, Basheer Ahmed, who claims that his daughter is not with him but at the NGO’s shelter home and insisted that the officials set her free because he has been receiving threats and wished to return to his hometown.

The girl, who was accompanied by her husband and relatives comprising over 20 people, was sexually assaulted at the Quaid’s Masoleum on Saturday evening. Since the victim was not in a condition to narrate her ordeal, her father, Basheer Ahmed provided The News with details of the case.

The family had been visiting the city from their home town in district Lodhran, Punjab, and, after visiting Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine in Karachi on Saturday morning, they headed to Quaid’s mausoleum in the evening. According to Basheer Ahmed, his daughter went missing from outside the resident engineer’s office on Tuesday night, when her husband had stepped out of the mausoleum to bring some relatives inside who had been waiting in a bus.

“My daughter was guarding the shoes of some of our relatives who were inside the museum. There were some others waiting outside, so my son-in-law asked my daughter to wait inside as he went out to get them. Just then, a power outage occurred at the museum, and, when my son-in-law returned, he could not find her,” said Ahmed.

As the family searched for the girl, they asked the mausoleum officials to help them and announce through a microphone that she had gone missing, but they refused to do so as the mausoleum did not have a stand-by generator. “After sending the family back to Lodhran, the girlÂ’s father, uncle and husband stayed back to search for her and they waited outside the museum through the night. The family tried to approach the police to lodge an FIR but their plea went unheard until they were approached by Aga Asif Kerbalai who saw the family waiting outside on Sunday evening.

Khalida of WAR said that Aga Asif then helped the family to register an FIR at the Brigade police station.

A few hours after lodging the FIR on Sunday night, the girl was recovered at 4.00 a.m. on Monday in a semi-conscious state outside the mausoleum from where she was sent for a medico-legal examination.

“The assault has been proved, but, because she is married and also says that she was heavily drugged, there are no signs of resistance as such,” said Khalida.

Although the girl has been stating that she had been raped at a store room in the museum, the police insist that she stated during the FIR that “a man took her from the mausoleum to an unidentified location on a motorbike”.

Moreover, from the police surgeon’s office, the girl was taken by the police (assisted by the WAR team) to the place of the incident inside the Mausoleum where she identified the storage room, which was locked. According to the Resident Engineer, the room had not been in use since February 27, 2008. However, eyewitnesses, who insisted that the room be unlocked, also found evidence which included stained clothes.
Source: The News
Date:3/20/2008