Day: December 29, 2011

By Shabbir Mir

CHILAS: At least two girls schools were partially damaged after two low-intensity explosive devices went off early on Wednesday in Chilas, about 130 kilometres from Gilgit.

“The blasts occurred at around 2:30 am but the damage to the school buildings is minor,” said Ali Sher, a senior police official at Chilas, headquarters of the Diamer district where the 4,500 MWs Diamer-Bhasha Dam is under construction.

The police official said no loss of life was reported during the explosions. Locals blame ‘anti-dam elements’ for the blasts which could jeopardise foreign funding for the project.

“We will not let such elements succeed in their nefarious designs,” said Salahuddin, a resident of Chilas.

Police said that eight suspects have been taken into custody for interrogation. “Improvised explosive devices were used for the explosion,” revealed Sher.

The ‘targeted schools’ consisted of a single room each with no boundary walls, said Asadullah, another resident of Chilas, adding that all the schools in the valley had been closed due to winter vacations.

Early this year, unidentified assailants had blown up two girls schools and partially damaged the boundary wall of a mosque in town. Clerics had unanimously condemned the act and called for unmasking the ‘hidden hand’ behind such attacks. However, no inquiry report was made public.

The Diamer valley has assumed a pivotal position for the country due to the Diamer-Bhasha Dam project which could generate up to 4,500 MWs of power by 2020. The dam is being built on the River Indus, about 300 km upstream of Tarbela Dam and about 40 km downstream of Chilas. According to experts, the dam is expected to be completed in eight years and will cost over $12 billion.

Source: TRIBUNE

Saher Baloch

Karachi: The mood at a roundtable conference organised by the US consulate on Wednesday was somber, as two women spoke out about the trauma they were forced to endure at the hands of their ex-husbands.

The conference, which was called ‘Institutional Response to Domestic Violence’, featured panelists Sehra Waheed and Zara Sethi. They spoke about their personal experiences and the difficulties women faced in publicly discussing issues of domestic violence.

A victim of domestic violence for over six years, Sehra Waheed has written a book titled ‘Silent Submission’ about her ordeals as a wife who suffered domestic violence. On her one-month trip to Pakistan, she is looking forward to translating the book into Urdu so that it is comprehensible to a majority of Pakistani women.

“I never thought I’d be a writer. I never thought I’d be sitting here and sharing my story with so many of you but circumstances pushed me to take a stand,” she began. Born and raised in Karachi, she later moved with her family to New York where she married for love in the late 90s. Her happiness was short-lived.

“First the verbal abuse began, and then the beatings, which later turned into rape if ‘I didn’t stop fighting back’,” said Waheed. But when she complained to his family about the beatings, “I was asked not to push matters further as my husband is the bread earner.”

Waheed said that though she knew committing suicide was forbidden in Islam, she had, on a number of occasions, thought about ending her life as she was “down and out, emotionally as well as financially”.

Fortunately for her, help was just a phone call away. One night, after being hit repeatedly by her husband, she notified the police. Her statement was recorded and she was taken to a district attorney’s office where pictures of her bruises were submitted along with her medical reports.

“I got the help I needed at that time, and I am speaking up so that other women can also muster up the courage to speak about abuse, no matter kind it may be,” she added. Sitting beside her was Zara Sethi, who is also resident of Karachi. Sethi has survived 19 years of abusive marriage. After being beaten and insulted in front of her three teenage kids on an almost daily basis, she finally decided to leave her husband.

But her children still remain with him. What’s worse, she says, is that “they hate me”. Sethi says she tried her best to compromise–to make the marriage work, “but it was all in vain.” The beatings continued.

Wiping her tears away, Sethi says that there had been times when she ran to the neighbours for help. “They all heard me crying and yelling for help but no one came forward as my husband was well known in the area we lived in.”

Sethi has now no qualms about revealing her personal life to strangers. “They know enough about it anyway,” she says. “According to figures given by the Aurat Foundation, there are 136 cases of domestic violence in Sindh in this year alone,” says Waheed.

“Speaking up in public is never easy, no matter how confident and self-assured one might be,” says Sethi. “There is always a fear that you might be scoffed at behind closed doors.” Criticising lawmakers, both Waheed and Sethi say that it is easy to pass bills, but it is far harder to make sure that the passed legislation is properly implemented.

Source: THE NEWS

DADU: Influential landlords of the village of Hoot Khan Shahani declared a teenage girl as kari in a meeting on Wednesday and decided to kill her if her family did not leave the village ‘within 24 hours’, according to a written complaint submitted to Dadu SSP by the girl’s father.

Mehmood Shahani, the girl’s father, said in the complaint that feudal lords, Sabz Ali, Jaind and Mehran, had branded his 13-year-old innocent daughter as kari.

He said the feudal lords were his close relatives but they were rich, but he was a poor farm worker and could not confront them. They had warned that if he did not leave the village within 24 hours, his daughter would be killed, he said.

SSP Farooq Ahmed appointed DSP Mohammad Omer Shahani as inquiry officer and directed SHO of Gaji Shah police station, Majeed Shahani, to arrest the feudal lords and provide protection to the girl.

He told Dawn that action would be taken against the accused in accordance with relevant laws. Security had been provided to the girl and raids were being conducted to arrest the accused, he said.

Mehmood Shahani told reporters that Gaji Shah police were openly supporting the influential persons and said he feared that if they were not arrested his daughter would be killed.

He said that rights activists of Dadu town had turned a deaf ear to his pleas when he sought their help in the matter.

On the other hand, the SHO of Gaji Shah said the girl’s father refused to get police security and stopped policemen from guarding his house when they were deployed there for security. He said that Mehmood Shahani had a dispute with Sabz Ali, Jaind and Mehran over matrimonial issues. Mehran and Jaind were government servants and they were not in the village but Mehmood was blaming them, he said.

He said that families of Mehmood and Jaind had decided some 10 years ago that Mehmood’s daughter would be married to his nephew Jamal. But now he was trying to go back on his word, he said.

Source: DAWN

ISLAMABAD: Speakers on Wednesday stressed the need for strict enforcement of recently-enacted legislation on women’s rights.

They also urged the civil society to come forward and play its role in changing the mindset in this regard.

These views were expressed at a national consultation on ‘Gender-based legislation and issues of implementation’ organised by Aurat Foundation here.

Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar, MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Saqibullah Chamkani and Musarrat Safi, Assistant Inspector General (Operations) Sultan Azam Taimuri, Justice (retired) Shaiq Usmani, Member Provincial Commission on the Status of Women Farzana Ali and Executive Director Ethno Media Samar Minallah were the main speakers. Justice (retired) Shaiq Usmani said: “Our courts, particularly the lower courts still have strong prejudices against women which surely influence their proceedings in all the cases involving women, family affairs and inheritance.”

Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar said the civil society should form pressure groups to press the government to implement women rights laws. She proposed formation of a ‘women parliamentarian commission for implementation’ which shall have powers to summon any concerned institution.

Advocate Humaira Masihuddin said in case of cognizable offence, law considers severity of a crime so high that police can act without warrants and arrest the accused.

MPA Saqib Ullah Chamkani said the problem is not the lacunas present in the law, but it is the mindset — the mindset of implementing agencies like judiciary and law enforcement agencies. He also pointed to the ever increasing gap between legislators, implementers and people or beneficiaries of the justice systems as main hurdle in delivery of justice to the people, particularly in cases of women’s rights.

MPA Musarrat Safi said women legislators were performing their role of introducing gender-sensitive legislation, however, next is the role of implementation agencies and the civil society.

Nasreen Azhar, member National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), said the recently made acts would also be taken to the provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and southern Punjab.

Valarie Khan, Chairperson, Acid Survivors Foundation, said apart from the awareness, a perfect legislation was very much required. She also stressed the need to place a better accountability mechanism to eradicate violence against women.

Executive Director Ethno Media Samar Minallah presented some video clips from her documentaries where women were telling their stories of how they were given away in swara and vani. She said apart from legislation on the issue and its implementation, a change in mindset is very much required, and this is where civil society has an important role.

Qazi Jamilur Rehman, DIG Police, Malakand, emphasised the need for capacity building of police department. He said the police department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recently initiated notable steps for training and capacity building of the department to facilitate the officials in implementing the women-specific laws.

Mohammad Salim Khattak from National Police Academy said that police officials from rural area have gender discriminatory behaviour and they performed their duties with such prejudices.

Helena Saeed, Director Projects, National Police Academy, said that women have specific needs but these specific needs of working women are not addressed. “The women working in police department are not provided enabling environment,” she said.

Human rights activist Tahira Abdullah suggested that in order to avoid the pressure from the influential, the police department should get the support of civil society organisations. Sultan Azam Taimuri, Assistant Inspector General (Operations) said that Pakistan inherited the Police Act of 1861 from British policies in Indian-subcontinent, which remained intact till this day without even the slightest change.

Source: DAWN