Day: March 27, 2008

The convener and senior presiding officer, Masood Mehmood, in the absence of City Naib-Nazim Nasreen Jalil, announced the approval of one of the tabled resolutions, while two other resolutions were unanimously approved by the City Council. The house session was later adjourned till the next meeting on Thursday (today).

The house unanimously condemned the rape incident at the Quaid’s mausoleum, saying that the victim and her family should get justice without any delay and the incident should not be used for any political gains.

The house members further said that Islam gives full rights to women but unfortunately there were some elements in society that did not give respect to women.

On the occasion, the women members from both treasury and opposition condemned the culprits and demanded harsh punishment for them.

“A pragmatic approach must be adopted. We do not need only lip-service. The government should adopt harsh measures against the criminals to prevent others from engaging in such nefarious activities,” they said.

In the second resolution, the council members congratulated the newly elected Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, first Muslim woman Speaker of National Assembly Dr Fahmida Mirza, Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi and all four nominated chief ministers. The resolution was approved unanimously by the house.

Saeed Ghani, the opposition leader, said that they were pleased with the victory of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani. He, however, added that they were strongly feeling the absence of their late party leader Benazir Bhutto.

He further said that the newly elected prime minister would face some challenges like high inflation rate, unemployment, increased fuel prices and load-shedding. Ghani hoped that the elected government would tackle all these issues.

Opposition member Rafiq Engineer said that the time had changed with the oath-taking ceremony at parliament and now the country would be moving towards democracy from dictatorship.

Treasury member Asif Siddiqui said that the prime minister should look into the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) affairs at earliest. He added that the Karachiites were facing eight to 10 hours load-shedding on regular basis and no serious efforts were being made to improve the situation.

Opposition member Ramzan Awan asked the convener to release the development funds for his town as soon as possible. Another opposition member Majeed Baloch (Union Council-6, Lyari) said that the law and order situation was getting worse day by day. He said that after sunset nobody could think of coming out of his house in his town because the entire area was controlled by the armed gangs, while police had no presence in the area to control the situation.

Opposition member Juman Darwan asked the convener to allow him discussion on land-grabbing issue. According to him, the Malir Development Authority (MDA) had taken the control of 9-Deh, which was unfair for the residents of these Goths.

He alleged that in 1993, MDA had 9,510 acres land and now it owns 27,000 acres, most of which belonged to the people of Gadap and Malir Town and this piece of land was being used for agriculture purpose.

He was disallowed for speaking further on the issue by the presiding officer who said that the matter was already under consideration and it could not be discussed at this point. The opposition disliked the interruption and walked out from the house but came back later. However, they again walked out in protest.

The treasury members alleged that Al-Kidmat was not sincere with the issues related with the Karachiites. “They are also misusing the Awam Dost Panel. They have always boycotted the proceedings whenever a resolution was tabled for bringing improvement in the system.”

According to treasury member Ashan Siddiqui, the city needs its own power generation units as the KESC could not be relied upon. Abdul Jalil said that the government should allow the CDGK to produce its own electricity through wind mills at the costal belt.

However, on the request of Asif Siddiqui, the discussion was stopped till the next meeting. He said that since the opposition members were not present, the matter should be discussed in front of the full house.

However, a resolution regarding the change of use of land was approved by the house in the absence of opposition. The resolution was drafted to convert ST-12 plot for parking plaza.

The land was earmarked for a park but due to space constraint for parking the council suggested that the land should be utilized for parking plaza along with ST-4 plot.

Nadeem Hashmi, Chairman Transport Committee, said that there were already two parks near the said land, adding, the CDGK would not have to invest money on the project as it would be completed under Build, Operate and Transfer (BTO) basis.
Source: The News
Date:3/27/2008

KARACHI, March 26: The civil judge and judicial magistrate, East, Javed Hussain, on Wednesday extended the physical remand of a security officer of the Mazar-i-Quaid till March 28 for his alleged involvement in the gang-rape of an 18-year-old woman on the premises of the mausoleum.

Police had arrested an assistant manager security of the mausoleum on March 20 in connection with the gang-rape of a young woman, who was subjected to sexual assault after being kidnapped on the premises of the mausoleum by unknown men on the night of March 15. She was found in an unstable condition outside the mausoleum on March 17.

The victim in her statement, recorded under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code, told the court that she was a resident of Lodhran and had come with her family to the city after visiting the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan. She added that they went to the Mazar-i-Quaid on the night of March 15.

Her husband went outside to bring in the remaining family members waiting in a bus. In the meantime, the power went off and around five men grabbed her by the hand and at gunpoint took her into a storeroom in the mausoleum, where they sexually assaulted her.

A case (FIR 50/08) was registered at the Brigade police station under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of her father. The section was inserted in the PPC through the Protection of Women Act 2006.

The suspect was produced before the court amid tight security. The court told the investigation officer to present all the investigation record on the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, police said they were looking for three staffers of the Mazar-i-Quaid security detail, who had been missing since March 17 following the recovery of the gang-rape victim outside the Mazar.

Police said that three members of the security and management staff had been missing. They had conducted raids at their respective homes, but failed to arrest any of them, said a senior police officer.

Police said that the missing men could have a role in the crime otherwise there was no reason why they should go missing on the day the victim was found.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/27/2008

DADU, March 26: Gang-rape victim Reehana Channa, 16, warned on Wednesday she would commit suicide if her tormenters were not arrested and brought to justice, as police claimed arresting one of the accused and closing in on the rest.

The investigation officer of the case, Nissar Ahmed Bhatti, said on telephone that police had arrested Ghulam Hussain Leghari who was nominated in the FIR and were conducting raids to arrest the remaining accused. He would be produced in court for seeking his judicial remand, he said.

The victim’s father accused in the FIR that Mumtaz Jamali, brother of an ASI of district women police, Ghulam Hussain Leghari, Gulan Khan Leghari and a woman Khatoon Leghari of forcing into his house late on Monday night after jumping over the courtyard.

They locked the family in a room, tied his daughter with ropes and subjected her to gang-rape, he said, adding that the influential accused were now threatening to kill his entire family.

Police lodged the FIR and sent the victim to Dadu Civil Hospital for treatment. The hospital’s civil surgeon Dr Taufique Memon said that he had constituted a medical board to prepare report about the patient’s condition. The girl’s biopsy had been taken and sent to a laboratory for confirmation of rape, he added.

The gang-rape victim said that Mumtaz Jamali who worked at the DPO’s office was threatening to kill her. She warned she would commit suicide if the accused were not arrested and she was not provided justice.

The girl’s father Nematullah Channa told journalists that his daughter was not well. Police were deliberately delaying arrest of the accused, he alleged.

SHO Asghar Birhamani said that he provided police protection to the victim after the girl’s father lodged the FIR, which had been sent to investigation police.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/27/2008

HYDERABAD, March 26: The Hatri police have released four servants of the Shoros who had been picked up to mount pressure on the nominated accused to surrender themselves to authorities in the policeman Ali Hassan Solangi torture case.

Their were released, reportedly, on orders of a senior police officer, who is reportedly have received a phone call from a PPP MPA-elect, who is likely to be inducted in the Sindh cabinet.

Police sources said that four men, including Ghulam Sarwar, Wazir and Hakim, had been picked up by police on the day when Ali Hassan Solangi, a process server of Pinyari police station, was kidnapped and subjected to inhuman torture.

One of the detained men was a gunman of the Shoros while others were closely associated with them.

Meanwhile, none of the accused has been picked up by Hatri police for interrogation in the case.

Qasimabad Taluka Nazim Noor Mohammad Shoro, his brother and Qasimabad Union Council-4 Nazim Deedar Shoro, Jam Khan Shoro, the son of Deedar Shoro, and others are the accused.

“The Shoros, including the taluka nazim, got information that police are likely to pick them up, therefore, they slipped,” said a police source.

Hatri Police Station SHO Habibullah Chand, who was also holding additional charge of Supervising Investigating Officer (SIO), was the investigating officer of the case. Now he has been replaced by Agha Abdul Majeed as Hatri SIO by authorities.

Jam Khan Shoro has called this correspondent from Islamabad and claimed that he had falsely been implicated in this case and his father was a heart patient and admitted in a hospital in Karachi following a cardiac surgery.

“There is some problem in his grafted veins that’s why he is admitted while I am in Islamabad since March 23,” Jam Shoro said.

Being closely associated with former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Jam Khan Shoro was Pakistan Muslim League candidate on PS-47 seat in recent elections. However, he defected from PML to PPP in presence of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto during a public meeting on Dec 17.

Reports said that he found his way into the PPP through good offices of Dr Zulfikar Mirza, now MPA-elect of the party and is likely to hold a portfolio in Sindh cabinet.

A police official said that since the four detained men were not the accused, neither their remand was obtained nor they were shown arrested.

Meanwhile, the tortured policeman has been shifted to Jamshoro hospital for major surgery. His eyesight seemed to have been affected because some acid was thrown on his face.

The cause of torturing Solangi was said to be an incident took place in non-party Local Bodies elections in 2005.At UC-4 of Qasimabad’s Khabbar Khero female polling station a scuffle took place between PPP activists and the Shoros.

It was told that police had beaten Deedar Shoro while stripping him in public. Shoros had been nursing a grudge over this against Ali Hassan Solangi since as he was on duty there and had an altercation with Deedar Shoro.

Quoting Solangi, his nephew alleged in an FIR that Jam Khan Shoro had thrown acid on her face while others had chopped off both his hands from wrists and he was fired upon on his thigh.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/27/2008

TOBA TEK SINGH, March 26: A naib tehsildar and a patwari were suspended from service on Wednesday after they were allegedly caught red-handed while raping a girl in Garden Town locality some three days back.

According to a press release, EDO (Revenue) Malik Ashraf Awan took the action against naib tehsildar Rana Muhammad Iqbal and patwari Muhammad Pervaiz after police registered a case against them under sections 371, 376 and 114 PPC. The release further said a disciplinary action would also be taken against them. Another naib tehsildar was also present at the time of the police raid, but he managed to escape from the scene. Although the case was also registered against him, he has not been suspended for reasons best known to the department.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/27/2008