Day: September 19, 2012

By: Qurrat Ul Ain Ali

KARACHI: Most people in Karachi use public transport for travelling within the city. The condition of our public transport system is there for all to see. For a working woman to travel in Karachi’s buses is a painful ordeal as it seems that conductors, drivers and male passengers believe it is their right to harass female passengers.

Harassing women through the use of foul, indecent language, playing highly vulgar songs and adopting offensive body language is a matter of routine. Local authorities need to take a look into this state of affairs to make travelling by buses bearable for women passengers.

The Express Tribune

By: Kamran Mansoor

The decomposed and strangulated body of Fauzia, 13, was found near the University of Karachi on Tuesday. Passers-by informed police about the body, which was then shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for a postmortem.

A medico-legal officer at ASH said that the body was two days old and that Fauzia had been gang-raped and then strangled to death. The MLO also said that the body bore several torture marks. According to the police, Fauiza had been kidnapped on September 15 from Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s Block-3.

Her family had already filed an FIR against unknown people at the Mobina Town police station. This is the first such incident to take place since February 27, when the tortured body of a minor girl was recovered from the Sachal police limits.

The News

LAHORE: A fascinating scenario arose at the Lahore High Court on Tuesday when during the hearing of a love-marriage case, the relatives of the girl claimed that the groom was not a man but a woman.

Ayesha Butt and Shahzad Butt had filed a petition seeking cancellation of an FIR that the family of the girl had registered against the groom on charges of kidnapping and theft. The girl through her counsel submitted that she had contracted marriage with Shahzad Butt of her free will.

In her statement, the girl also stated that no one had kidnapped her and that her family had lodged a fake case against her husband. She told the court that she wanted to live with her husband and requested that the FIR be quashed.

During the course of hearing, the uncle of the girl, Arif Butt, stated before the court that Shahzad Butt was not a man but a girl. He said the real name of Shahzad Butt was Sonia Butt. He also presented the birth certificate and school leaving certificate of Shahzad Butt which showed that the latter was a girl.

He alleged that Sonia Butt was a member of a criminal gang and trapped girls pretending to be a man. He said the gang later forced the trapped innocent girls into prostitution. Arif Butt also urged the court to order the medical examination of Sonia (Shahzad) so that the alleged drama could be exposed.

Justice Manzoor A Malik, however, observed that the instant petition pertained to the FIR registered with B-Division police station Gujrat only and the court could not issue any directions irrelevant to the petition.

The judge directed the police to cancel the FIR in light of the girl’s statement and asked the girl’s family to approach the appropriate forum to establish their claim. After the proceedings, the ‘couple’ sat in the courtroom to avoid the wrath of the girl’s family and media persons. Later, the judge ordered high court security officials to escort them outside the court premises.

As they came out of the courtroom, the ‘couple’ initially avoided answering a series of media queries. However in a brief talk with reporters, Shahzad defended the allegations and said he was a man, not a girl. Ayesha also spoke and said her husband was not a girl and that she did not want to live with her parents.

The News

MULTAN: A man on Tuesday threw acid on a woman over domestic issue here in Qasirabad area on Tuesday. According to police sources, Attaullah contracted second marriage due to which his first wife Kalsoom Bibi and second one Shaista quarrelled frequently.

The quarrel took a violent turn when Shaista’s brother Abdul Rauf allegedly threw acid on Kalsoom’s face as a result of which she sustained severe burns. She was shifted to Nishter Hospital for treatment where doctor said that her eyes and face were burnt from acid. The police have registered a case against the accused.

The Nation

PESHAWAR: Community members and women who worked with Benazir Bhutto Centres for Women since 2005 have called upon the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to reconsider its decision of shutting down these centres in the province.

They said that while Punjab government was strengthening such centres it inherited from federal government under 18th amendment the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had closed down its four crisis centres since June 12, 2012.

Swat Unity Network headed a delegation of women who had been working in these centres on contract basis in Swat, Kohat, Abbottabad and Peshawar and held a press conference in Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

Khan Saeed, the network’s coordinator, told reporters that such centres were still needed in places like Swat where women were faced with social and legal problems. Women victims of domestic violence needed such centres run by government since they were easily accessible.

He said that the four centres had 40 staff, including social workers and legal advisers, who provided free services to victims of violence. The centres helped around 5,300 women who came for shelter or legal help, Mr Saeed claimed.

Noreen Nargis, who worked at the crisis centre in Kohat, said that it provided shelter and legal and medical aid to women. The closure would affect the women since the centre was located at a place where not even a shelter home or Daarul Aman was present.
“Where would the victims of domestic violence go for help now since illiterate women have no easy access to police stations or courts,” Ms Nargis asked and added that closure of centres had also rendered the workers jobless.

Dawn