Voice of Gender News From Pakistan
SARGODHA: A youth gunned down his sister for honour here at village 112/SB in the wee hours of Tuesday. Muhammad Ramzan doubted that his sister Shabana had involved in suspicious activities and had forbid her not to go out of house. But she defied his brother and kept on following her will.
At which enraged Muhammad Razman shot her to death. The Atta Shaheed Police shifted the body to Rural Health Centre 46/SB for autopsy and registered case against the accused.
SUKKUR: In most crimes against women, the SHOs register soft cases against the offenders. The FIRs are also written in such a way that nobody can even read them properly. The handwriting in the FIRs should be very clear and everybody should be able to read it.
These views were shared by speakers at a workshop titled “Prevention of Violence against Women” held on Tuesday to train and sensitise police officials, especially the SHOs, who practically own their respective areas.
The SHOs register cases under lenient legal sections for the “karo kari” murders (honour killings) and thus the culprits go scot-free after one or two court hearings, either on benefit of the doubt or due to insufficient evidence.
The Sukkur SSP, Peer Mohammad Shah, Khairpur SSP Irfan Baloch and the Ghotki SSP, Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh believed that in most cases, not even the details of the murder are noted properly and the officers don’t bother to seize the murder weapon.
Especially in the karo-kari cases, it has been observed that the SHOs favour the culprits by saying they murdered due to “ghairat” (honour). This is wrong, a murder is a murder, karo-kari or otherwise, they said, urging that the SHOs should stop taking women as a commodity and change their mindset.
The SHOs rule like kings of the police station and their jurisdiction and because of their attitude people are afraid to visit the police stations, the police officials added.
Although the Prevention of Violence against Women project was launched in October 2010 to control crimes against women, it has failed to achieve results, Sukkur ADIG Shaukat Ali Abbasi said. “Since 2010, the SHOs are being trained on how to deal with women-related crimes but it seems that either they do not understand its importance or they don’t want to understand it.”
In urban areas, women are allowed to go out and work with men but the situation in rural areas is quite different. Women are mostly kept away from schools and from their childhood are told that they have to take care of the household. “In our male chauvinist society, we are not ready to give equal rights to the women and this is where the fault lies,” said Abbasi.
Life of a woman living in rural areas revolves around the same things. She has to wake up early in the morning, feed and milk the cattle and then prepare the family’s breakfast. She then goes to the fields and works there till noon. Then she returns home to prepare lunch and then return to the farm to work till dusk. “And in the process, if she is seen talking to someone from the neighbourhood, she is labelled a kari [adulteress],” the Sukkur ADIG explained.
Criticising the police, the president of the Sukkur bar association, Hadi Bux Bhatt, women rights activist and PML-F leader Safia Baloch among others were of the view that the rate of conviction in women-related cases is negligible, which encourages the criminals. The police take active part in jirgas held for karo-kari and other related matters, which is condemnable.
The project officer, Sobia Agha, thanked the police officers for cooperating with the civil society representatives on highlighting violence against women. She claimed that since the launch of the project, women-related crimes have reduced in the province.
Rescue workers on Tuesday found the body of a young woman packed in a gunny sack near Malir river bed. A medico legal officer, Dr Kaleem Sheikh, said the body was two days old. The victim, appearing to be between the ages of 18 to 20, was strangulated.
“A noose was tied around her neck. And we found dried pieces of flour on her fingers. Her face was completely blackened because of being covered with a plastic bag and left in a gunny sack for a long time,” Dr Shiekh explained.
Though a cloud of mystery still surrounds her death, investigators believe she might have been raped before being murdered. Shah Latif Town police officer Aijaz Shah said that the possibility of a rape could not be ruled out. “But we need a medical proof before we proceed,” he said.
At the same time, Shah said that they were waiting to hear from any of her family members, “which I think is unlikely, as we found her body near a river bed.”
Meanwhile, officers are waiting for a chemical report from the JPMC in order to start a proper investigation.
Dr Shiekh said in many cases bodies were not identified and after a few days were sent to Edhi morgue.
“But it’d be good to find someone from her family or any relative, so that perpetrators are brought to the book,” he hoped.
By: Faisal Kamal Pasha
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman on Tuesday sought record, from the Ramna Police Station, of the case of Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl implicated in alleged desecration of religious text, who has filed an application for quashing the FIR against her.
The court directed Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri to assist the court in the case and directed the station house officer (SHO) of the police station concerned to personally appear before the court and submit a detailed reply. The counsel for Rimsha contended that the allegations levelled against her were false, as was evident from the statement of a prosecution witness.
He said there was a clear contradiction in the statements of the prosecution witnesses, including Hafiz Malik Zubair, and contents of the FIR as well as there was no proof against her. As per the statement of the prosecution witnesses, the local police arrested Hafiz Muhammad Khalid Jadoon for allegedly mixing pages of the religious scripture in the ashes while according to the medical reports the petitioner was also a juvenile. The petitioner also prayed to the court to stop the law-enforcement agencies from harassing her and her family. The court would resume hearing in the case on September 28.
In one another case, Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan of the IHC dismissed a petition declaring it non-maintainable. The petitioner, Tanvir Chaudhry, Advocate, had prayed to the court to direct the government broaden the ambit of the blasphemy law to foreign nationals also. The petitioner had contended that since the persons committing blasphemy mostly belonged to other countries, the blasphemy law should be made applicable also to citizens of other countries so that it could take its course against whosoever commits blasphemy in the whole world. He had contended that a blasphemer should be tried in Pakistani courts and if a foreign government did not cooperate with the Pakistan government, it should sever its ties with that country.