Day: April 21, 2012

NAVEED BUTT

ISLAMABAD: The ‘Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2012’ for women protection would be presented for adoption in the next session of the National Assembly to be held on April 25, it is learnt.

Senate has already unanimously passed the bill.

Nilofar Bakhtiar presented it in the upper house of parliament.

When former Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) had presented the Bill for introduction in the last session of the Upper House (Senate), she urged Senate’s Deputy Chairman Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali to pass it without sending it to the concerned Standing Committee.

All Senate members had supported Nilofar’s point of view.

When contacted, Nilofar Bakhtiar said that the bill would provide protection to women, adding that before referring a case of domestic dispute to a magistrate, a reconciliation committee, headed by a counsellor, would be authorised to try to resolve the dispute.

A similar bill was also presented in the recent joint sitting of parliament, but it could not be passed because of PML-N and JUI-F’s strong opposition.

According to sources in the National Assembly Secretariat, a Motion of Thanks would be presented in the House to start debate on the presidential address to the joint sitting of parliament.

The issues of power outages, price hikes, the recent increase in petroleum price and cabinet’s expansion would also be discussed in the next session of the National Assembly.

Sources in the PML-N said that their party was trying to press the government to submit the national accountability bill in the lower house of parliament, adding that it had been pending for the past three years.

Business Recorder

Mobile vans deployed across country to ensure every woman is registered.

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) registered around 40 million women in the country, a majority of whom are eligible to cast their ballots in the next general election.

Officials told The Express Tribune on Friday that NADRA had dedicated mobile vans in almost every district to ensure each and every woman was registered across the country. “The authority has been working aggressively to increase female registration across the country, particularly in the far-flung areas through its mobile registration vans, Deputy Chairman Tariq Malik said in a statement.

Malik added that 11 women-only NADRA centres were also facilitating women in acquiring Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC).

Officials claimed that the authority had so far registered 39.1 million women across the country to be included in the electoral rolls, including 5.1 million women in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 560,652 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 21.7 million in Punjab, 8.5 million in Sindh, 1.4 million in Balochistan, 384,513 in Islamabad, 266,220 in Giglit-Baltistan and 1.1 million in Azad Kashmir.

While emphasising the role of non-governmental organisations for creating public awareness, Malik said UN Women Pakistan will support NADRA by providing technical advice about gender equality and empowerment of women, exploring new opportunities to complement ongoing institutional efforts and determine other areas or services, where cooperation and support would be mutually beneficial. Aurat Foundation will also assist NADRA in running public awareness programmes, especially in remote areas to encourage women to register themselves in the national database. While dismissing misleading impression of women’s registration to vote, the deputy chairman was adamant that over 1.1million women were already registered in 2012, ensuring their right to vote, as CNICs are mandatory to be registered in the voters’ list.

The Express Tribune

RAWALPINDI: Additional Sessions Judge of Rawalpindi Mohammad Naveed Iqbal on Friday announced death sentence for an acid thrower who took the life of her ex-girlfriend in 2009 by burning her face and sensitive body parts with it.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on the convict Mohammad Asif. However, the co-accused in the case – Abrar Ahmed and Abdul Waheed – were acquitted for want of evidence.

According to the prosecution, Asif, a friend of deceased Gulnaz Bibi 27, was annoyed at her as she got married with another man Riaz Shah. In order to satisfy his anger and to take revenge he threw acid on her burning her body parts.

An FIR of the case registered in R. A. Bazaar police station by Nasreen Bibi, a sister in law of the deceased, said Gulnaz told her on telephone on June 5, 2009 that she was visiting a shrine of Baba Gohar Ali Shah along with her friend Asif.

Nasreen said Asif got angry with Gulnaz over a minor dispute and left her in the cab saying he had to buy something from a nearby shop. Then Asif brought acid and threw it on Gulnaz. Nasreen claimed to have heard cries of Gulnaz on telephone.

The prosecution told the court that police found the victim injured. Gulnaz was shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital where doctors declared that acid had burnt her body at four points severely.

According to medical report, the victim’s face including eyes, back, sensitive body parts and arms were burnt in the attack. Gulnaz kept hospitalised for 26 days and on July 1, 2009 she finally succumbed to her injuries.

The acid thrower Asif after the incident escaped from the scene, he remained an absconder for two years but surrendered himself to the police on July 8, 2011.

Dawn