Day: June 5, 2012

ISLAMABAD: Reportage of crime against women registered an increase in March with an average 17 First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged per district as compared to the preceding month when 10 FIRs were filed. The report released Monday said that although rise in such cases is a cause for concern, it also indicates increased awareness to report these crimes when they occur.

According to Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), monitors visited 77 offices of District Police Officers (DPOs) to gather information on FIRs registered for 27 offences falling under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Of the monitored districts, 27 were in Punjab, 21 in Sindh, 19 in KP, nine in Balochistan and one in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

In the observed month, there was a significant increase in reported cases of forced marriages that rose from 314 in 35 districts in February to 653 in 40 districts. Lahore (222), Okara (69) and Vehari (47) were the top reporting districts in March. Moreover, 108 cases of offences relating to marriage were also registered in 10 districts.

Rape was also widespread – 220 FIRs being filed in 43 districts in March compared to 147 registered in 33 districts the preceding month. In February, 193 cases of attack on modesty were reported in 33 districts while March saw the number rise to 270 in 38 districts. There were also 37 cases of honour killings reported in March in 16 districts. The highest number of cases was recorded in Ghotki (6), Kamber Shahdadkot (4) and Rajanpur (4). In February, 24 FIRs were filed for honour killings in 16 districts. Some 41,671 cases were reported in these districts. Eighteen percent of these were crimes pertaining to property, followed by those involving physical harm to people (9%), threat and fraud (7%) and crimes against women (3%).

Moreover, 64% were cases of other crimes. A region-wise breakup shows that 65% of the total crimes were reported in Punjab. KP (23%), Sindh (10%) and Balochistan (1%) followed. There were also 148 cases recorded in ICT.

A better outreach, lack of parallel judicial systems and a higher confidence level between the police and the people are said to be the probable reasons for better crime reportage in Punjab than other regions. During the monitored month, 7,388 FIRs were filed for crimes pertaining to property. Thirty five percent of these were lodged for theft, followed by motor vehicle lifting (23%) and robbery and dacoity (18%).There were 16% cases of motor vehicle snatching and 7% those of criminal trespass.

Of the 3,647 FIRs for crimes ensuing physical harm to people, hurt constituted 41% of the FIRs attempted murder (29%), murder (22%), accidental death (qatl-i-khata 5%), illegal confinement (2%), accidental death (qatl-bis-sabab 1%) and terrorism-related incidents (1%). Furthermore, of the 2,778 FIRs lodged for threat and fraud, 57% were of counterfeiting currency.

Cheating and criminal breach of trust followed with 15% cases each, criminal intimidation (7%), offences against public tranquility (6%), and fraudulent deeds and dispossession of property (1%). Ten out of 77 districts reported more than half (52%) of the total crimes. Of these, eight districts were in Punjab and two in KP. Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar were the top reporting districts.

Daily Times

Ayesha Shahid

ISLAMABAD: With sensational media reports making the rounds about four women having been killed in Kohistan after videos were leaked of them dancing with two men during wedding festivities, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the case on Monday and ordered the officials concerned to provide more information about the issue.

Right now the tragedy is marred with uncertainty as reports create confusion over whether the news about the murders having taken place on May 30 is correct.

Therefore, when a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain sat down to hear the case, the chief justice’s first question to Attorney General Irfan Qadir was that if the four women had indeed been murdered.

The chief justice observed that such an act would be a direct violation of Article 9 (right to life) and Article 14 (right to dignity) of the Constitution. He said he wondered how a jirga could have taken such a decision when “we have held jirgas unconstitutional and illegal”.

The court is already seized with a petition of the National Commission for the Status of Women (NCSW) which asks for jirgas to be declared illegal because it is a parallel and unregulated justice system.

In March, the court had ordered provincial chief ministers, secretaries and inspectors general of police to ensure that the practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes through jirga was stopped.

Ms Riffat Butt, legal expert at the NCSW, said: “The previous orders of the court against jirgas were specifically with regard to anti-women practices like Vani and Swara i.e. they addressed the outcomes.

“We are making the case that jirgas should be completely declared illegal; if jirgas are not held at all such sorts of decisions cannot be taken. And at many different occasions different courts in their orders have declared that jirgas are against constitutional norms.”

In this context, the case of Kohistan women killings becomes especially relevant to the Supreme Court hearing of the NCSW petition which will be held on Wednesday — the day the attorney general is required to interview and produce the four women before the court since Hazara division officials have denied the killing or the fact that a jirga had ever been held to take a decision about the fate of the women.

The chief justice also ordered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastgir, the Hazara regional commissioner and Kohistan DPO to submit comprehensive reports on the issue by June 6. The hearing will be crucial in determining truth about the incident.

However, if it turns out that the jirga had taken a decision to kill the women and men this would certainly strengthen the case of NCSW for banning jirgas throughout the country.

“Whether the women have been killed or not, the fact that a jirga has taken such a decision shows that such incidents are not only happening regularly, but they are also taking extreme forms. This is a fundamental violation of human rights and the federal and provincial governments need to make legislations on the issue,” Riffat Butt said.

Dawn

Nisar Ahmad Khan

MANSEHRA: Elders and clerics of Pales village in Kohistan district on Monday denied the alleged killing of five women on a jirga decree over singing and dancing along with men in a marriage function, and told an official fact-finding mission that all the women shown in a mobile phone video were alive and in safe hands.A section of the media had earlier reported the killing of the said women on May 30 amid denial by the Hazara division administration.

Earlier in the day, the mission comprising Hazara commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai, DIG Dr Mohammad Naeem, Kohistan DCO Aqaal Badshah and DPO Abdul Majid Afridi flew to Bechbala Gadar area on directives of Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

“The women, who are reported to have been killed on the decree of a jirga, are alive and as per the accounts of local elders and families of the said women, no one can kill them on the basis of a suspicious video,” DCO Kohistan Aqaal Badshah told reporters here.

Mr Badshah said two brothers of Mohammad Afzal, who had ‘broken’ the news of the women’s killing, were also arrested.

“Besides recording the statements of the family members, ulema (clerics) and elders, we also searched for new graves but found nothing in support of the claim of Mohammad Afzal about the killing of five women to media on Sunday,” he said.

Mr Badshah quoted female members of the said women’s families as appealing to the media not to disgrace them by airing the dancing video on TV channels.

He also quoted a cleric as saying that neither women nor men seen in the video were labeled as perverted and hence, no question of killing them arose.

A source close to the fact-finding mission said elders and clerics made it clear to the mission that they could extend whatever surety was required under the law to confirm that women were alive but they (women) couldn’t be produced in front of ghair mehram (non-relatives) in line with local traditions.

He said police had arrested Gulnazray and Binyasir, who were also seen in the video, from Allai area before shifting them to Kohistan.

Police on Sunday lodged FIR against them under section 509, 505, 292 of Pakistan Penal Code and 18-Motion Picture Ordinance.

Also in the day, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry took a suo motu notice of the alleged killing of women and asked the district administration to produce the women on June 6 before him.

Mohammad Afzal and Shahzaday, who had allegedly made the video on mobile phone, and then transferred to others, were still at large and police were raiding at different places in Hazara to apprehend them.

District police officer of Kohistan Abdul Majid Afridi had said once Mohammad Afzal, his brothers and Shahzady were arrested, then the truth about the jirga decree and the killings would be out.

Dawn