Day: December 22, 2011

The HRCP’s recent report on honour killings in Pakistan indicates that the average woman continues to be victimised by patriarchal, clannish traditions even as legislation is passed to criminalise such abuse. The report states that 675 women were killed in the name of ‘honour’ between January and September 2011. Several aspects of this horrifying trend must be analysed in order to understand its persistence and halt its onslaught. On the one hand we can focus on the judicial system’s loopholes. We can insist that women be given adequate and impartial access to police protection and legal aid, and we can press for perpetrators to be dealt with harshly so as to deter further acts of violence against women.

On the other hand, we can seek to address the widespread cultural biases women face – biases that are often the motivating factor behind honour killings, acid attacks and similar abuse. These biases against women are so pervasive that often women are not considered independent, equal members of society even in Pakistan’s most advanced urban settings. A woman’s fate is tied to her (invariably) male guardian’s fortune throughout her life. Importantly, she is seen as both a reflection and a source of her guardian’s status in society. This ensures that she can be bought, sold, blamed and exonerated at the community’s will, in accordance with whatever her family believes will increase or restore their ‘honour.’ These cultural biases may be the hardest to overcome, but ultimately social awareness is the only way that honour killings will gain widespread public disapproval. It is essential that women be made aware of their right to live free from the tyranny of arbitrary dispensations of justice. It is equally important that women’s participation in public life be enhanced, so that they are valued and viewed as more than easily disposable accessories. In the absence of concerted government efforts to eradicate honour killings, most women have no choice but to submit to whatever punishment their community metes out to them simply because they have nowhere to turn. In the meantime, short-term measures like establishing safe havens for women who choose to flee their homes instead of submitting to sweeping tribal judgments may have a positive impact on the chilling death toll presented to us.

Source: Tribune

Karachi: Yet another couple were shot dead on Tuesday because they dared to marry of their own free will. According to a text message sent by a local, the couple were killed when assailants opened fire at their residence in Ghotki.

However, no FIR has been registered against the incident and the only piece of information that has emerged thus far is that the killers allegedly belong to the Chaker tribe.

Even though honour killings have been ‘discussed’ on several occasions, there seems to be no end to such incidents as the year draws to a close. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s (HRCP) nine-month report states that a staggering 675 cases of honour killing have been reported in Pakistan, mostly in Sindh.

The ‘official’ figure presented in the Sindh Assembly is around 197, but Abdul Hayee, a senior field worker for the HRCP, says that the actual figure is much higher. The cases are “somewhere in the thousands”, MPA Humera Alwani pointed out in the Sindh Assembly. Much like Alwani, a number of other politicians have voiced their concerns over such incidents; however, any attempts to take action against honour killings are often scuttled on one pretext or the other.

Compounding off cases or accepting blood money is the main reason that the cases are not taken up by anyone, says Zuhra Yusuf of the HRCP. “Honour killings should be considered as crimes against the state, rather than against an individual,” she adds.

Once a couple are found to have married at will, their case is presented before a Jirga, which has its own unique way of handing out judgments, says Abdul Hayee. Though tribal Jirgas were proscribed by the high courts in the late 90s, they are still active in many parts of Sindh and Balochistan.

Once a case is before them, tribal elders demand Rs500,000 as blood money for the girl or boy who is later to be killed. If the family fails to agree, a new round of conflict ensues in which innocent relatives of the victims are also killed.

There have also been cases, Zuhra Yusuf points out, where fathers and brothers of a girl have killed her themselves “to avoid the stigma” and “keep their honour”.

Hayee says that the HRCP finds out about honour killings either through newspapers or sources, but it is rare that a couple being threatened would contact the commission for help. Not many people know where to go or who to contact when threatened with their lives.

Citing an old case as an example, the senior HRCP field worker says that a man named Ali Raza and his wife are still facing the repercussions of tying the knot despite belonging to rival tribes. Raza’s sister was recently abducted and killed.

Such incidents have been taking place for the last decade, Hayee says. “We may create a furor by our facts and statistics, but the point remains that these people have to go back to the same village. The police needs to be more proactive.”

Proactive is the same word that Alwani used while referring to the role of the police in such cases, which are sometimes not reported due to rampant corruption in the department, she says.

Even if a girl gathers enough courage to report the case, “they send her back to the family, who in such instances do not hesitate in killing her.”At present, there are only five women police stations in Sindh, says Alwani, adding that apart from “non-existent training” and “zero competence, they also lack the authority to register an FIR”. It all comes down to the same old issue – “make the prosecution stronger and the change that we talk of so often will be achieved”, stresses Yusuf.

Source: The News

Salis bin PerwaizKarachi

The investigating team of the SSP West Crime Range has resolved the mystery of the murder of three sisters that took place in the Mominabad area in October this year. The law enforcers arrested the father of the three girls during a raid in Mominabad on Wednesday and the suspect later confessed to killing his daughters.

SSP Khurram Waris of the West Crime Range recalled that on October 15, 2011, the bodies of three sisters, two of them handicapped, were found floating in the pond of a cattle pen in Miraj-un-Nisa Colony of Orangi Town No.10.

The three sisters were identified as 14-year-old Sumaira, 12-year-old Uzma and eight-year-old Nisha, who were the daughters of Sher Mohammed. He added that Sumaira and Uzma were disabled. Their father, Sher Mohammed, was the owner of a buffalo pen and had five children, including two sons. He originally hailed from Gujrat in Punjab. Waris said that the investigation team of the Mominabad police lodged an FIR on the complaint of Sher Mohammed against unknown persons. Medical reports confirmed that the girls had been poisoned.

Police sources said that after registering the FIR, the investigation team called the father to the station on more than 20 occasions as it suspected his involvement. However, the law enforcers each time cleared Sher Mohammed of being involved in the triple murder.

The inspector general of police took notice of the triple murder and ordered the SSP West of the Crime Range, Khurram Waris, to arrest the culprit. SSP Waris that after receiving orders from the Police Headquarters four days ago, he gathered investigation reports, which included the medical report and statements of people.

His investigations led him to suspect Sher Mohammed’s involvement in the crime and he sent a police team to bring the girls’ father to the investigation unit. Waris said that after being thoroughly interrogated, Sher Mohammed confessed to killing his daughters.

Sher Mohammed told the police that he was troubled by his daughters, including the two who were disabled, and had been planning to kill them after his wife left on October 13 to attend a gathering in her hometown of Gujrat.

On the night of October-14-15, 2011, he mixed sleeping pills in the dinner of his daughters and waited for them to fall unconscious. He then picked up the three girls and threw them the into the pond for buffalos and returned to his room to take a nap.

Sher Mohammer then woke up at 4:00am, and went back to the pond, where he found the bodies floating. In an effort to divert suspicion from himself, the father ran to his neighbour’s house and claimed that somebody had killed three of his daughters. He and the neighbour rushed to the pen to take the bodies out and then called the local police.

Sher Mohammed also told the police that after a few days after killing the three girls, he contemplated suicide, but was afraid to go through with it.

Source: The News

Karachi: Just a few days after the raped and tortured body of six-year-old Alishba was found, another corpse of a minor, believed to be around the same age, was found in some bushes of the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area.

After being informed about the body, a police mobile reached Block-19 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar and found the decomposed corpse of the minor. Some parts of the girl’s body had been eaten by animals. The police shifted the corpse to hospital for medical and chemical examination.

The law enforcers said that the dead body was between 15 and 20 days old, adding that the exact cause of death would be determined after a chemical examination.

The Sharea Faisal police said that they had aired a message on the police control about the discovery of the body just in case any complaint had been lodged about a missing girl or kidnapping within the last 15 days. A case was reported and investigations are under way.

The raped and tortured body of a six-year-old girl identified as Alishba was found last week in bushes near University Road.

Minor boy drowns in a ditch: The body of a minor boy was recovered from a nullah on Wednesday, in the jurisdiction of the Shahrae Noorjhan police station. Hussain’s body, the three-year-old son of Ramaish, was seen floating by the people of the area who informed the police.

His body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital which was later taken away by family members without due legal formalities. The child had fallen down in the nullah and died, police sources revealed.

Source: The News

KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Council has expressed its commitment to observe Dec 22 as a ‘working women’s day’ with a renewed commitment to create space for women to contribute actively in the corporate world.

The council members have an increasing number of women working at every level in their organisa-tions, including senior management positions and that it is the day to acknowledge the contributions being made by these talented women.

Source: Dawn