Day: June 7, 2008

KARACHI, June 6: Members of civil society on Friday urged the relevant authorities to refer the Kainat Soomro gang-rape case, which had been transferred to Dadu, back to Karachi.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club, representatives of various civil society organisations said that since the accused in the case were quite influential, the rape victim and her poor family members fearing for their lives had left Dadu and were currently residing in Karachi.

The press conference was jointly organised by the War Against Rape, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Women Action Forum and Aurat Foundation. They said that in such a life-threatening situation, it was impossible for these poor people to attend the hearings in the case in a Dadu court.

The girl and her family members fearing for their lives had left their Dadu home for Karachi and had subsequently, approached the Sindh High Court to get the case transferred to a court in Karachi. The then chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad, had transferred the case that was to be heard by the District Judge, South, Arjun Das.

They said that the judge pointing out that the case had been registered under the Hudood Ordinance requested the SHC that it be transferred to some other court so that it could be heard by a Muslim judge.

Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro of the SHC, instead of referring the case to some other court in the city, transferred the case back to Dadu.

They feared that if the case was not transferred back to the city, the accused would get indirect benefit as the victim and her family, owing to the threat to their lives, would not be able to proceed further in the case in Dadu court. In such a situation, they added, the accused might get acquitted.

They said that they had also approached the Supreme Court for the transfer of the case back to Karachi.

The members of civil society informed the newsmen that they had also sent a complaint to the Supreme Judicial Council against Justice Soomro for transferring the case to Dadu without any plea in this regard either from the victim or those nominated as accused in the case.

They also called for a stern action against those who were extending threats to the rape victim and her family for the withdrawal of the case against the accused. They also urged the relevant authorities to provide the girl and her family members with adequate security on behalf of the state to ensure their safety.

Sarah Zaman, advocate Javed I. Burqi, Nasrin Siddiqui, Khalida Farooqui and others also spoke.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/7/2008

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman on Friday said existing 10 percent women quota in public service would be doubled.

“We are struggling hard to empower women in the country and would use all available resource including other ministries in this respect,” she said at a workshop on “Social and Legal Aspects of Discrimination and Inequalities against Women” organised by Gender Development Section, Ministry of Law and Justice in collaboration with the National Gender Reform Action Plan (NGRAP).

The minister distributed certificates among participants of the workshop and appreciated NGRAP’s efforts to empower women.

The workshop discussed laws and their implications for the social and legal aspects of women, how discrimination and inequalities are manifested and their impact on women.

Later, talking to media, Rehman reiterated commitment of the PPP government to bring women into the national mainstream.

“We are an elected, accountable government and we enjoy the support of majority of women voters,” said Rehman, stressing that political will, commitment and action, not just resources, lead to achievement of goals.

She indicated that legislative process was underway to make laws regarding women prisoners, domestic violence and land allotment for ensuring social and economic rights to the women. “We’ll fast track it,” she added.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/7/2008

ISLAMABAD (June 07 2008): Anti-Wanni Bill will soon be tabled in the National and Provincial Assemblies, whereas Domestic Violence Bill has been sent to the Ministry of Law and Justice for vetting and will be presented before the National Assembly within two weeks.

This was announced by Sherry Rehman, Minister for Women Development while addressing a seminar on the “Situation of Violence against Women in Pakistan”, held here on Friday. Bushra Gohar, MNA of Awami National Party, Dr Faqir Hussain, Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice Commission, Maria Rasheed, Director Rozan (NGO) and representatives of other civil societies were present on the occasion.

The seminar was organised by Aurat Foundation in connection with the launch of first quarterly report of 2008 on statistics containing incidents of violence against women during January to March 2008 under its national programme ‘Policy and Data Monitor on Violence against Women.’ Sherry said that in our society it is very difficult for a woman at all levels to ask and fight for her rights.

“We are trying our level best to frame law on cruel practices against the women and to provide them a secure environment. However it will take time”, she added. Sharing the details of the report, Maria Rasheed informed the participants that there were a total number of 1,321 violence incidents against women in the four provinces of Pakistan and in the federal capital, Islamabad (546 in Punjab; 298 in Sindh; 282 in NWFP; 151 in Balochistan and 44 in Islamabad), between January 01 and March 31, 2008.

In addition to these incidents, 30 men in Sindh and one man in Balochistan also lost their lives in the incidents of ‘honour’ killing during the same period.

Out of a total of 1,322 cases of violence against women in Pakistan, there were 366 cases of murder (130 in Punjab; 110 in Sindh; 95 in NWFP; 25 in Balochistan; 6 in Islamabad); 90 cases of ‘honour’ killings (11 in Punjab; 35 in Sindh; 8 in NWFP; 36 in Balochistan); 25 cases of attempt to murder (13 in Punjab; 7 in Sindh; 5 in Balochistan); 246 cases of abduction (177 in Punjab; 38 in Sindh; 16 in NWFP; 4 in Balochistan; 11 in Islamabad); 179 cases of hurt and body injury (56 in Punjab; 32 in Sindh; 44 in NWFP; 42 in Balochistan; 5 in Islamabad); 119 cases of domestic violence (34 in Punjab; 30 in Sindh; 46 in NWFP; 7 in Balochistan; 2 in Islamabad); 66 cases of suicide (27 in Punjab; 24 in Sindh; 8 in NWFP; 4 in Balochistan; 3 in Islamabad); 11 cases of attempted suicide (10 in Balochistan; 1 in Islamabad); 61 cases of rape (34 in Punjab; 14 in Sindh; 9 in NWFP; 3 in Balochistan; 1 in Islamabad); 18 cases of gang-rape (8 in Punjab; 10 in Sindh); 34 cases of sexual assault (13 in Punjab; 6 in Sindh; 10 in NWFP; 3 in Balochistan; 2 in Islamabad); 34 cases of custodial violence (10 in Punjab; 14 in Sindh); 16 cases of burning (4 in Punjab; 6 in Sindh;1 in NWFP; 4 in Balochistan; 1 in Islamabad); 3 cases of acid throwing (2 in Punjab; 1 in Sindh); 6 cases of trafficking (4 in Punjab; 2 in NWFP) and 57 cases of violence were of miscellaneous nature in the four provinces and Islamabad. Nearly 99 percent perpetrators of these incidents of violence against women were male, either relative or non-relative, according to the reading and scrutiny undertaken by the staff of Aurat Foundation.

In most of the incidents of women murder, the motives cited or reported were accusations of ‘illicit’ sexual relations, domestic quarrels, blood feuds, land disputes, lure of property and personal enmity. Sometimes, the crimes of this nature were committed over minor and trifling issues in a sudden outburst of anger, as claimed by the accused. Gender bias or an intolerant and inhuman behaviour towards women, however, turned out to be the real motive in most of these cases.

Though domestic violence, which often has lethal consequences for women, is widespread in Pakistan, it has not been as widely covered in this report as it should have been, for reasons of inaccessibility to the data from most of the government-run shelter homes/crisis centres and most importantly because the violence usually committed within the home is neither recognised as an offence in the law nor women mostly get an opportunity to reach out to public or private institutions to report these cases, particularly in the rural areas.

However, according to a limited number of cases reported in the media and registered with the police, show that the motive behind such offences is grounded in the conviction of many men that women are their property and obliged to fulfil men’s needs and wants without questioning.

Mostly, the violence occurred due to a family dispute and resulted in physical and mental abuse, rape, burning, acid throwing, burning and killing. It has also been reported that women were kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had failed to bear a child or had given birth to a ‘wrong’ gender child.

The figures about increasing incidents of abductions, ‘honour’ killings, suicides and rape are alarming. There were 246 women who were abducted; 90 women were killed in the name of so-called honour (karo-kari), particularly in Sindh and Balochistan.

Similarly, the most horrifying fact was that 66 women took their own lives and 11 attempted to commit suicide in a span of three months and 61 women were subjected to rape, the most ignominious of all crimes, and 18 were gang-raped, shows the extent of suppression and violence creeping into the lives of ordinary women, where either they do not find any recourse to a decent living or are humiliated and disgraced through violent acts by men.

One astonishing finding of the reports from all the provinces and Islamabad is that the incidents of violence were of equal number in urban areas, with the exception of incidents of ‘honour’ killing and the province of Balochistan, which is predominantly rural or tribal.

There are a number of other issues relating to availability of data with police, medico-legal centres and shelter homes/crisis centres for women, the registration of FIRs etc, which are discussed in the data reports of Islamabad and the four provinces as main findings of the quarterly reports released by Aurat Foundation’s offices in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta (these are available with ANF offices). “By presenting this collected data of reported cases, we must also bear in mind that we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg, especially regarding domestic violence and VAW in the rural areas and smaller towns”, added Maria.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:6/7/2008

CHAKWAL, June 6: A woman was killed and another injured in separate domestic violence incidents late Thursday evening, police sources said.

In the first incident, a man allegedly killed his wife in Sarkal-Mayer village.

The accused, Mohammad Khan, and his wife Sonia had contracted love marriage seven years ago. For the last few months, they were quarrelling occasionally.

Mohammad Khan gave her a drink spiked with intoxicants and then strangled her. He made her death look natural, saying that she died of a heart attack and then buried her.

However, Sonia’s father knew about his daughter’s miserable life, and got an FIR registered against Mohammad Khan. Police have launched a search for the accused.

In another incident a man broke his wife’s arms in Mulhal Mughlan village late Thursday evening.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/7/2008