Day: March 6, 2011

Rabia Ali

Karachi: A 24-hour deadline has been given to the Gulberg police by Consultant on Home Affairs Sharfuddin Memon to trace suspects in the rape case of a five-year-old girl.

Speaking to The News on Saturday, Memon said, “We have taken notice of the issue and have directed the area police to arrest suspects and produce them within the next 24 hours. Also, we are shifting the survivor from the National Institute of Child Health to a private hospital where we will bear the expenses of her treatment.”

The decision was taken after the home department’s consultant held a meeting with senior police officials of the area, and expressed dissatisfaction with the investigation in the case.

Since the family of the girl was not satisfied with her treatment at the government hospital, she has been shifted to the Aga Khan Hospital. Meanwhile, Mohammad Ali of the NGO Roshni Helpline has offered to provide free legal aid to the rape survivor.

The five-year-old girl, M – who belongs to the Hindu community – was allegedly raped by an unidentified sexual predator on the evening of February 26, when she was on her way to a Dhaba to buy tea near her home in Dost Mohammad Goth in Gulberg Town. When the child did not return, her mother rushed outside and found her crying and bleeding profusely near a roadside.

An FIR was lodged under Section 375 of the PPC at the Joharabad police station against unidentified suspects.

Source: Dawn

Date:3/6/2011

GUJRANWALA: A man along with his mother burnt his wife to death allegedly for denying him permission for second marriage after they remained issueless, in Bakhtewala on Saturday.

Shakeel Ahmad, of Mubarkpura, married Fakhera Bibi seven years ago but no offspring was born during their wedlock.

Shakeel wanted to contract second marriage but Fakhera refused. Shakeel and his mother Anwari Bibi allegedly doused Fakhera in petrol and set her ablaze.

The 27-year-old was taken to DHQ Hospital in a critical condition where she succumbed to her burns.

The Sabzi Mandi police registered a case against the man and his mother without any arrest so far.

Fakhera`s body was later handed over to the family after an autopsy.

The family later held a demonstration by placing the body on GT Road. They demanded that the suspects be arrested at the earliest.

Source: Dawn

Date:3/6/2011

KARACHI: Speakers at a seminar on Saturday urged women to get education and learn technical skills in order to be aware of their rights and become economically empowered so that they can play their due role in the progress of the country.

Speaking at a seminar on “Insecurity and women” organised by the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), the Benazir Bhutto Women Support Centre and the National Association of Business, Professional and Agricultural Women, they said that a nation could not progress in real terms if half of its population was not allowed to utilise their abilities for the betterment of the nation.

Sindh Labour Minister Amir Nawab urged women workers to get organised and join trade unions in their respective organisations in order to protect their rights.

He said that women are equally competent and intelligent and whenever they were given equal opportunities they had given equally good or in some cases even better results than their male counterparts.

Referring to the issue of domestic violence, he urged parents in general and mothers in particular to pay more attention to the upbringing and grooming of their children especially boys and teach them to treat their sisters, cousins and other women family members with respect so that when they grew up they would not indulge in domestic violence or such other immoral acts.

Referring to his Awami National Party, he said that unlike many other political parties, the ANP did not have a separate women wing as it considered women equal partners and women workers participated in party activities equally and at one time even a woman – Begum Nasim Wali Khan – headed the party.

SESSI representative Dr Fatima Hassan said that this seminar was being held in connection with International Women’s Day celebrated on March 8.

Tracing the history of the day, she said that formally the first recognised International Women’s Day was held in 1910 and a conference was organised in Copenhagen in 1910 in which 100 women representing 17 countries participated.

Social activist Shamim Kazmi, columnist Zahida Hina, writer Razia Fasih, Advocate Nahid Ahmad and others also spoke.

Source: Dawn

Date:3/6/2011

ISLAMABAD: The Nadra has planned to launch special drive for free registration of women throughout the country on the occasion of International Women Day on March 8.

The special campaign titled as, `Women Registration Drive,` aims at achieving the target of 100 per cent registration of women by making them aware of the importance of registration to get their basic rights.

“The International Women`s Day (IWD) on March 8, 2011 will be marked by Nadra with the commencement of free registration for the unregistered women in the country as they would be provided national identity cards free of cost,” Deputy Chairman Nadra Muhammad Tariq Malik said in a statement issued here on Saturday.

He said that women formed around 51 per cent of the population and were a vital segment of the society and progress without their unhindered participation in all spheres of national life could not be made. “It is imperative that they should earn a respectable place in the international arena,” he added.

“Nadra wants to empower women for their basic rights and the drive aims at increasing women registration to have more accurate data to facilitate national planning commission in decision making,” Tariq Malik further said.

He said that Nadra was making all-out efforts to get the adult population in Pakistan especially the women registered in a minimum possible time to facilitate them in getting education, health, employment and other facilities.

Tariq Malik said, “CNIC is an essential identity document which protects women`s rights. It is evident through the fact that first time in history their rights are safeguarded when in flood-hit areas women as family heads were given Watan Cards and Nadra issued as many as 121,640 Watan Cards to disburse Rs2.43 billion among woman family heads.”

He said that the registration ratio in some areas had been very low as social norms, illiteracy, poverty and female mobility issues were the major factors besides lack of awareness about the benefits of registration.

He said that approximately 74 per cent women had been registered in the country.

He said that 96 per cent women in Azad Kashmir and 90 per cent women in Islamabad regions got themselves registered and these were the highest women registration percentage in the country.

He said that the women registration in Fata and Balochistan was at the lowest with approximately 44 per cent and 56 per cent women registered in the database respectively.

While giving details about other provinces he said that 79 per cent women in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 76 per cent in Punjab, 70 per cent in Sindh and 83 per cent in Gilgit-Baltistan had registered them in the national database.

Source: Dawn

Date:3/6/2011