Day: August 12, 2012

SUKKUR: Another case of a Hindu girl converting to Islam has surfaced as she and her husband approached a court seeking safety after receiving threats from the girl’s family. The girl, Manisha, embraced Islam and married Ghulam Mustafa of Jacobabad after moving to Amroth Sharif on August 6. She also changed her name to Mahwish.

The relationship that started with friendship on phone culminated in the girl’s conversion to Islam and the subsequent marriage. The incident coincided with the purported migration of Sindh’s Hindu families to India on the pretext of poor law and order. The couple approached the Sindh High Court’s Sukkur Bench and sought protection. Manisha’s father, Rivat Mall, alleged that his daughter was kidnapped and forced to embrace Islam.

Daily Times

BAHAWALPUR: Cholistan Development Council of Pakistan Executive Director Farooq Ahmed Khan said that the government had taken historic step to ensure protection of women’s rights. He also praised the efforts of the parliamentarians in this regard. He welcomed the announced made by President Zardari about appointment of women judges. Discrimination with women has very deep roots in our society. There is a need of change in men’s behaviors, he said.

He stated that the federal government had made different amendments in laws about the protection of women’s rights. Pouring of acid on women had been declared a criminal act. It is a great achievement of the civil society.

He said, “We should make our women strong and more and more opportunities of education and jobs should be provided to the women. It is need of hour that women should be inducted in police and judiciary. Establishment of women police stations and Darul Amans with the female staff is very important.

For the monitoring of these police stations and Darul Amans, monitoring teams have been consisted of women.” He demanded that the government should review the conditions of Nikkah Nama or marriage contract about the protection of women’s rights. The condition of national identity card should be necessary for marriage.

The government should take serious notice of old and non sense tradition of ‘ Pait Likhaee’ in which marriages of daughters are settled before their birth and make necessary laws for the stoppage of this tradition and should be declared a criminal act.

The Nation

By: Arshad Bhati

LAHORE: The Punjab University on Saturday declared the results for Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) Annual Examinations 2012 with a pass percentage of 39.85, showing an increase of 6 per cent over the last year when this percentage was 34.09.

According to the result notification, of the 143,750 candidates who took the BA/BSc examinations, 57,284 were declared as successful. This year, once again girls clinched the three top positions in the BSc examination, and also secured the second and third positions in the BA examination. Interestingly, all top positions in BA were bagged by external candidates (private students) belonging to Hafizabad, Lahore and Gujranwala districts.

Punjab University Controller of Examinations Prof Dr Liaquat Ali declared the results of the BA/BSc annual examinations 2012 at a prize distribution ceremony held at the Al-Raazi Hall, Undergraduate Study Centre, and New Campus.

Dr Ali said of the 143,750 candidates who took the BA/BSc examinations, 57,284 or 39.85 per cent were declared as successful. “The pass percentage this year is about 6 per cent better than the previous year and 10 per cent better than 2010,” he informed. Of the total candidates, he added, 45,778 were boys and 97,972 were girls.

“A total of 12,309 boys (26.89 per cent) and 44,975 girls (45.91 per cent) were declared as successful. In the special category, 4,060 candidates appeared in the examinations and of those 2,241 were declared as successful,” Dr Ali added.

Overall, the top position in BA was clinched by private candidate Muhammad Muhsen Ali who got 688 out of 800 marks and set a new record. In BSc, Punjab College of Science Ferozepur Road Lahore’s Sania Riaz got 686 marks and stood first; Government Queen Mary College Lahore’s Sundus Shehzadi got 658 marks and stood second; and Punjab College for Women Civil Lines Gujranwala’s Suneela got 655 marks and stood third.

In BA, private candidate Kanwal Latif got 668 marks and stood second, while the third position was jointly shared by private candidates Muqaddas Shahbaz and Maria Anam who both got 661 marks.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran awarded Rs100,000 each to Muhammad Muhsen Ali and Sania Riaz for standing first in BA and BSc examinations; while second and third position-holders in both groups were given Rs75,000 and Rs65,000, respectively.

Addressing the prize distribution ceremony, Dr Kamran said the basic reason behind all the problems being faced by our country was that our nation had not been put on the path of knowledge and research. “Our rulers have not paid attention to education since the inception of Pakistan 65 years ago,” he regretted.

Dr Kamran said according to an Iraqi scholar, 250 Aya’hs of the Holy Quran were related to legal and administrative affairs, but about 750 of its Aya’hs stressed the humankind to explore the mysteries of the universe and seek knowledge.

The Punjab University vice chancellor suggested that the government should allocate at least 4 per cent of GDP to education and 1 per cent to research. “If our rulers can unite on the 17th and 18th constitutional amendments, then why they cannot unite for the promotion of education in the country?” he asked.

Dr Kamran said, on the contrary, the budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was being slashed despite the availability of funds. “The clash between the government and the HEC ensued after the issue of politicians’ degree verification came to the fore. The universities are not the entity of any political party or individual; rather, they are national institutions,” he maintained.

Dr Kamran tendered an appeal to the federal government to make all-out efforts for national consensus on promotion of education. “If the government did so, the people would forget all the problems faced by them,” he viewed.

The Punjab University vice chancellor stated only those nations ruled the world that promoted knowledge in their societies. “Our total GDP is 170 billion dollars, while the United States spends 900 to 1000 billion dollars on education and 380 billion dollars on scientific research,” he informed.

Dr Kamran said power was a must for respectable survival in the world and knowledge was the headspring of power. “Pakistan is a country of 180 million people but we could not win even a single medal in the London Olympics. Same is the case in other spheres of life,” he added.

Dr Kamran congratulated top position holders on behalf of Punjab University teachers, employees and students; and said their success was due to the attention and prayers of their parents and teachers. He also advised the students to make creation of knowledge a goal of their life.

Additional Controller Examinations Ahmed Ali Chattha, former Controller Examinations and Dean Faculty of Engineering Prof Dr Taqi Zahid Butt, heads of various departments, position-holder students, and their parents and teachers were also present on the occasion.

The Nation

HYDERABAD: As acts of vengeance continue against couples defying their families to marry, another freewill couple joined the list facing death threats. Twenty-six-year-old Sajjad Samoon and Nargis Soomro, 22, tied the knot on August 3 but were lucky enough to survive an attack outside the court only five days later.

On Saturday, the woman claimed at a press conference that her family with the support of the Soomro Ittehad was trying to kill them. “They twice fired shots at our residence [in Benazirabad] and on August 8, they chased us outside the court, trying to kill us,” Nargis alleged.

This is the second such case to emerge this month. On August 1, lawyer Javed Shaikh shot dead his sister Raheela, who had eloped with Zulfiqar Sehto, inside the courtroom of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad Circuit.

Waseem Soomro, Nargis’s father, is a school teacher and a poet. Sajjad is a graduate and is employed at a private bank in the Benazirabad district. His father, Khalid Hussian Samoon, is a manager in National Cotton Factory. He says his son’s proposal was rejected because the woman’s family wanted her to marry within their community.

After their wedding, an elder of the Samoon community, Ghulam Nabi Samoon, met with Soomros to settle the dispute but failed.

“My wife’s brother and cousins have more problems with our marriage than her parents,” snapped Sajjad. However, a representative of the Soomro Ittehad refuted these charges, saying they mean no harm to the couple “even though they have dishonoured the family”.

“They can live peacefully without any fear,” said Ghulam Mustafa Soomro, a former union council nazim from the Ittehad. “We are not after them.” He told The Express Tribune that Sajjad’s proposal for wedding was not rejected because he belonged to another community. “The man has a criminal record and was already married but he divorced his wife,” he alleged.

Sajjad admitted that he had divorced his first wife due to “family reasons”; however, he denied ever being charged with any crime. But the couple now fears registration of a bundle of fake cases against them. They have filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, demanding protection. The court has summoned the respondents, including the police, on August 15

The Express Tribune

By: PARVEZ RAHIM

Karachi: The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010 and its provisions are not complied with by various hospitals in Karachi. The definition of ‘organisation’ given in the Act is quite comprehensive and, besides the healthcare institutions, it includes educational institutes and industrial and commercial establishments. The above law has come into being due to the consistent and prolonged efforts of Dr Fauzia Saeed of the Alliance against Sexual Harassment.

However, having dealt with the disciplinary issues in two large multinational companies for three decades, I am of the opinion that the law in its present form is unwieldy and cumbersome. It is also in conflict with the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968, which is a labour law and provides a detailed procedure on handling of disciplinary matters.

Cases of sexual harassment have been successfully and effectively handled by progressive organisations even before the promulgation of the exclusive law on harassment. Standing Order 15 of the Ordinance of 1968 describes a number of acts and omissions that constitute misconduct and one of them, ‘act subversive of discipline’, is wide enough to cover cases of sexual harassment.

The Standing Orders Ordinance prescribes four types of punishment, and any one of them may be given to an employee found guilty of misconduct. The law on harassment provides four types of minor penalties and five major penalties for committing a breach of the code of conduct under the Act, some of which, such as ‘censure’ and ‘payment of compensation to the complainant’, are superfluous.

Conducting investigation into the complaints of harassment, especially by women employees, is difficult in our culture as they are either reluctant or afraid to repeat their statement or depose in front of an inquiry committee. Nevertheless, they may divulge the facts of the incident in front of a female investigating officer. If a prima facie case exists against the accused, he may be given punishment according to the gravity of his offence.

The management is supposed to maintain a high level of confidentiality while conducting investigation into complaints of sexual harassment. Draft legislation on the Employment and Service Conditions Act, 2009 was released in the same year by the ministry of labour and manpower for review of the stakeholders. In this draft, the following addition to the acts of misconduct was proposed: “Sexual harassment, including any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other verbal or psychological, mental or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”

Had this draft been passed into an Act, it would have covered cases of sexual harassment as well and there would have been no need for a parallel legislation. Owing to the sensitivities involved, investigations into complaints of sexual harassment require due care and diligence on the part of the management as any mishandling may shatter the employees’ confidence in the organisation.

Daily Times