Day: February 16, 2011

MAILSI: Police have refused to file a case involving a woman who had been exiled from her village on the decision of a local panchayat, after she was wed against her will and gang raped several days ago.

The woman was sent to the crisis centre in Vehari on Tuesday. Mailsi Moza Arain resident Humera was recently exiled from her village after her neighbour proposed to her and she rejected his proposal. Humera, who lived with her mother Nighat received a marriage proposal a week ago from her neighbour Raza. After she rejected the proposal local land lords Munawwar, Saeed Baksh, Mateen, Umair Haroon and others called a panchayat on Raza’s request. “Raza told them that his proposal had been rejected because the woman was having an affair and that the panchayat ought to deliver a harsh sentence,” said an eye-witness Latif.

Residents of the village said that the panchayat forcefully performed a nikah ceremony where Humera was wed to Raza. “The girl was crying and clearly shook her head to indicate ‘no’ every time she was asked about the marriage. The men took no notice,” said a neighbour Almas Bibi.

Following the nikah, Raza and three of his friends took Humera into a room and raped her.

According to villagers, the men later boasted about having ‘taught her a lesson’ for her previous conduct. “They openly flaunted the fact that they had raped her for rejecting him. They feared no consequences,” an eye witness said.

Following the sexual assault, the panchayat ruled that Humera be turned out of the village and never be allowed to set foot in the area again. Humera then approached the Women’s Crisis Centre and has sought refuge in one of their offices in Vehari.

MPA and Women’s Crisis Centre president Mrs Shameela Aslam said that she would personally ensure that Humera got legal representation.

“I will make sure that she is given financial assistance and the men responsible for this horrific incident are brought to justice,” Aslam said, adding that the police would be pressured to register the case. “We will campaign on her behalf to ensure that these men are brought to justice”.

Humer told reporters that the police had refused to file her case against the panchayat as well as against Raza and his accomplices.

Source: The Express Tribune

Date:2/16/2011

By Salis bin Perwaiz

Karachi: In a heart-wrenching incident on Tuesday, a seemingly psychotic Pakistan-born US national threw acid on his daughter and wife and later smashed their heads in with some blunt object in the Shah Faisal police limits.

His 25-year-old daughter, Zakia, died on the spot while his wife, Mushtari, is in a critical condition. She is being treated for her injuries at the Civil Hospital Karachi.

Police said the accused 60-year-old Iftikhar Ahmad, had come to Karachi from the United States along with his family some six months ago in connection with the marriage of his children. Two months ago, he had married off two daughters – Ayesha and Zakia – and a son. After marriage, his son left for the United States, along with his wife, while Zakia and Ayesha stayed in Pakistan.

A few days after his arrival in Karachi, his relations with his wife and her relatives took an ugly turn as Iftikhar believed that they wanted to occupy his house in Hafizabad. While he was in the US, he used to send money to his in-laws for the construction of his house on his 430-square-yard plot in Hafizabad.

After their arrival in Karachi, Ifikhar and his family lived on the ground floor of the house while his in-laws occupied the first floor.

He had several quarrels with them over the ownership of the house. He also used to quarrel with his wife over the intentions of her relatives.

Early on Monday morning, Ifikhar, frustrated and angry with his family, allegedly threw acid on his daughter Zakia and wife Mushtari and then bludgeoned them, killing Zakia and seriously injuring Mushtari.

Police said he was trying to make his escape when the neighbours got a hold of him and handed him over to the police.

However, the man refused to accept attacking his wife and daughter. He blamed the incident on his in-laws “When I heard my wife and children shouting for help, I rushed to their help, but some neighbours captured me,” the accused told the police.

He also told the police that his wife’s relatives had stolen his US passport.

Police is waiting for the recovery of Mushtari as her statement will be crucial in establishing responsibility of the crime.

Source: The News

Date:2/16/2011

LAHORE: Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jahangir has said incidents of violence against women are increasing in Pakistan as the police, despite protecting victims, are found favouring the accused.

Speaking in the context of an incident wherein a girl was kidnapped, raped and burnt by throwing acid on her face, she accused the Kahna police of protecting the accused.

She told a news conference on Tuesday that family members of the victim, who were also present at the news conference, alleged that Ashraf Meo along with two accomplices kidnapped their girl, raped her and threw acid on her face. To avoid police action, he forced her to put her thumb impression on a fake nikahnama (marriage deed).

Girl’s mother Jijan Bibi said the accused with the help of Anayat Ali and Sharif kidnapped her daughter from their quarter in Gajumata on Jan 16 last and kept her at some unidentified place for three days.

She said they recovered the girl with the help of the police. The police arrested the accused, but released them after taking bribe, she alleged.

She said the accused and the police did not let them take their daughter to hospital for one week in a bid to avoid any police action. She alleged now the Kahna police were forcing them for a patch-up with the accused.

Ms Jahangir, condemning the incident, said the police always supported the accused in cases against women and forced the victims to compromise with the accused. She said this practice encouraged the accused and became the main reason for an increase in such incidents.

She said only a legislation was not enough but implementation of laws was real service to the people. She said the poor were the true nation and the government must protect their rights.

POLICE VERSION: Kahna circle DSP Khalid Mateen said main accused Ashraf was on physical remand with the police while two others nominated in the FIR were cleared in the investigation.

He said the arrested suspect had confessed to throwing acid on the girl. He said the girl willingly left her home with Ashraf a couple of days before the incident and stayed at the place of suspect’s friend, a tractor-trolley driver.

The DSP said the two other accused nominated in the case were father and son who transported the victim to a hospital after the incident.

Rejecting allegations leveled by the victim’s mother, he claimed that the case was being investigated on merit.

He said the victim’s parents reacted only at the time of the incident (throwing acid) as they did not take notice of their daughter’s absence from home seriously.

Source: Dawn

Date:2/16/2011

KARACHI: Information secretaries of the Pakistan People’s Party women wing from all the 18 towns of the metropolis unanimously passed a resolution at a meeting on Tuesday, reposing trust in the leadership of party co-chairman President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP women wing’s president Faryal Talpur.

The meeting of PPP’s Karachi division women wing, chaired by information secretary of the party’s provincial women wing Sharmila Farooqui, was held at the People’s Secretariat near the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam on Tuesday.

The resolution said that Asif Ali Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, following in the footsteps of founding leader of the party Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, had been struggling for smooth flourishing of democracy, strengthening of democratic institutions and the rule of law.

Addressing the participants of the meeting, Ms Farooqui said it was the PPP-led government that had to its credit the seventh national finance commission award, which was passed with consensus, the Aghaz-i-Haqooq-i-Balochitan Package, the passage of the 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution, resolution of the concurrent list issue, provincial autonomy, the passage of law on domestic violence and other important bills from parliament, the restoration of sacked employees and recruitment of thousands of youths.

She said the PPP following the political thought of its leader Benazair Bhutto had been promoting political reconciliation among all political parties and national harmony among all federating units.

Appreciating the media, she said the media had greatly supported PPP’s struggle against dictators and for the restoration of democracy in the country.

She said: “The PPP still stands by its manifesto that says Islam is our religion, democracy our politics and socialism our economy.”

She said it was Asif Ali Zardari who ensured the restoration of services of employees sacked by former governments and recruitment of thousands of jobless youths in government departments. She added that President Zardari played a significant role in the passage of important bills on rights and provincial autonomy from the parliament.

She urged the information secretaries to raise awareness among the masses about the measures taken by the PPP-led coalition government for the protection of people’s rights through bills and amendments, including the law on domestic violence, passed in the parliament.

She pledged that the Sindh PPP women wing would continue its efforts to support the PPP-led government besides highlighting its steps being taken for the progress and prosperity of the country and nation.

Source: Dawn

Date:2/16/2011

KARACHI: The indecisiveness of the federal and provincial governments towards the continuation or regularisation of services of over 24,000 lady health workers (LHWs) and supervisors may ignite a fresh wave of protests in the days to come, warned senior officials in the Sindh health department.

Though the health department had survived a protest campaign launched last month by the LHWs, who had been engaged by the federal government in the province due to the intervention and personal interest of the chief minister, the LHWs may revive their campaign in future, said a source privy to the family planning and primary health activities.

The LHWs leaders in their protest campaign had threatened to boycott the polio-immunisation activities if something concrete was not done in the matter of non-payment of their stipends and regularisation of their services.

At present about 23,000 LHWs are engaged under a federal government project “Family Planning and Primary Health (FP&PH)” and get a stipend of Rs7,000 each under a contract system, which in line with a PC-1 could be continued till the end of the current financial year.

While the LHWs wanted to ascertain their future, the federal health ministry was unwilling to get involved in any new expenditures and obligations for the cadre in question.

It is learnt that the chief minister in a letter to the federal government had stressed the need for an immediate payment of the accumulated monthly stipend to them and steps for the regularisation of their jobs.

A cadre of LHWs was established at the grass-roots level in 1994 to ensure health education, reproductive health, vaccination, control of diarrhoea and other communicable diseases, promotion of using safe water and sanitation facilities and other dimensions of primary healthcare in rural areas.

They were being paid Rs3,000 per month as stipend on a quarterly basis till August, 2010. However, the amount was increased to Rs7,000 following a verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan last year and thus the financial implications were also increased and the health ministry had to take extra measures in this regard, said the source related to the LHWs services.

Sources said that in addition to the logistic and training cost, the one-month payment to LHWs and their supervisors amounts to Rs165 million.

The provincial coordinator for the family planning and primary health programme in Sindh, Dr Firoze Memon, told Dawn that following the release of Rs191 million, the salaries for the months up to December, 2010, had recently been transferred to the bank accounts of LHWs and their supervisors.

“The federal government has also intimated more release of funds shortly, which will enable us to pay salaries for the months of January and February, 2011, to all the LHWs and supervisors in the province,” the coordinator added.

The sources said that there were many issues that needed to be addressed on a priority basis for the sake of public health, but Islamabad was very much confused on the lady health workers issues, particularly after the passage of the 18th Constitution Amendment and the government decision to devolve the health sector to provinces by the end of June. A reply of a special letter sent to Islamabad, after a meeting with the LHWs’ leaders on January 31, was still awaited, they added.

It is learnt that some provinces had been convincing the federal government to ensure its financial supports against various ongoing projects in the province for at least another three years after the transfer of the health initiatives and schemes to the provinces, if the Centre wanted to see any purposeful continuity of those projects.

A source in the health department said that senior officials at a meeting held at Islamabad recently had also expressed their inability to fund the federal government-funded projects, particularly at a time when the province already needed to re-launch its various health facilities and restore its infrastructures that had been destroying in the floods.

Sindh wanted the federal funding to continue at least for the next five years, following which it would reassess the situation and decide a new line of action, the source added.

Commenting on the status of the LHWs, a senior official, requesting anonymity, maintained that the utility of the lady health workers in the existing health care delivery and education and awareness systems could hardly be denied.

However, no matter the federal government granted them the status of regular government employees or not, the Sindh government, after devolution, would have to decide their fate and regularise them, without taking into account the huge financial burden it would have to bear, otherwise the protest campaigns against the government would continue with all intensity, the official remarked.

Source: Dawn

Date:2/16/2011