Voice of Gender News From Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Chairperson of National Commission for Human Development Dr Nafisa Shah asked the media persons to play their role in creating awareness on gender policy and highlighting the gender issues in a way bring positive effects in society.
She was speaking at the concluding session of 3-day training on ‘Gender and Role of Media’ organized by South Asian Women in Media.
The Express Tribune
By: Sumera Khan
ISLAMABAD: Owing to the war on terror, slow economic growth and natural disasters, the government has fallen short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), particularly those of education, confirmed several government officials.
Former member planning commission Saba Gul Khattak told The Express Tribune that the country was lagging behind on its Millennium Development Goals, specifically in the education sector.
“Progress to the fifth year of schooling has declined over the past five years, 55 per cent of all Pakistani adults are illiterate, and among women the rate is close to 75 per cent,” she said.
Khattak said that the key impediment to MDG achievement is that women in Pakistan face discrimination, exploitation and abuse at many levels. Girls are prevented from exercising their right to education either because of traditional family practices, economic problems or the destruction of girls’ schools by militants.
Another official of the planning commission said that most countries are not able to meet MDGs regarding health, education and gender disparities, and Pakistan is no exception. “Pakistan has made progress but achieving MDGs seems impossible as the state cannot perform completely in accordance with such unrealistic targets,” said the official.
The original target set for meeting the MDGs is 2015, which includes eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education for boys and girls and combating HIV/AIDs.
The Pakistan MDGs Report 2010 summarises 16 national targets and 37 indicators adopted from the standard MDGs. According to parameters of performance, Pakistan is ahead in six indicators, on track for two, slow in four, lagging behind in 20 and is off-track only in one indicator, which is infant mortality.
Of the six successful indicators, the only one worth appreciating is a decrease in the prevalence of HIV/AIDs among vulnerable groups, including sex workers and young pregnant women. On the other hand, while Pakistan has one of the highest numbers of women representatives in the Parliament, it severely lags behind women-specific indicators such as the maternal mortality rate, women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector and the contraceptive prevalence rate.
ISLAMABAD: Health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers’ pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease. Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks last week.
“I have seen so much pain in the eyes of mothers whose children have been infected. So I have never seen this as just a job. It is my passion,” she said. “But I also have a family to look after … Things have never been this bad.”
After the deaths, the United Nations put its workers on lockdown. Immunisations by the government continued in some areas, but the violence raised fresh questions over stability in the country. The Pakistani Taliban, convinced that the anti-polio drive is just another western plot against Muslims, have long threatened action against anyone taking part in it.
The militant group’s hostility deepened after it emerged that the CIA – with the help of a Pakistani doctor – had used a vaccination campaign to spy on Osama bin Laden’s compound before he was killed by US special forces in Abbottabad last year.Critics say the attacks on the health workers are a prime example of the government’s failure to formulate a decisive policy on tackling militancy, despite pressure from key ally the United States.
Years of secrecy during military dictatorships, frequent political upheaval during civilian rule and a poor public education system mean conspiracy theories run wild.
“Ever since they began to give these polio drops, children are reaching maturity a lot earlier, especially girls. Now 12 to 13-year-old girls are becoming women. This causes indecency in society,” said 45-year-old Mir Alam Khan, a carpet seller in Dera Ismail Khan.
The father of four didn’t allow any of his children to receive vaccinations. “Why doesn’t the United States give free cures for other illnesses? Why only polio? There has to be an agenda,” he said. While health workers risk attacks by militants, growing suspicions from ordinary Pakistanis are lowering their morale.
Fatima, a health worker in Peshawar, said that reaction to news of the CIA polio campaign was so severe that many of her colleagues quit.
“People’s attitudes have changed. You will not believe how even the most educated and well-to-do people will turn us away, calling us US spies and un-Islamic,” said the 25-year-old who did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.
“Boys call us names; they say we are `indecent women’.” The government has tried to shatter the myths that can undermine even the best-intentioned health projects by turning to moderate clerics and urging them to issue religious rulings supporting the anti-polio efforts.
Tahir Ashrafi, head of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, said the alliance of clerics had done its part, and it was up to the government to come to the rescue of aid workers.
“Clerics can only give fatwas and will continue to come together and condemn such acts,” he said. “What good are fatwas if the government doesn’t provide security?”
RISK OF POLIO RETURNING: That may be a tall order in Pakistan, where critics allege government officials are too busy lining their pockets or locked in power struggles to protect its citizens, even children vulnerable to diseases that can cripple or disfigure them.
Leaders deny such accusations and politicians also have a questionable track record when it comes to dealing with all the other troubles afflicting the country. The villages where health workers once spent time tending to children often lack basic services, clinics, clean water and jobs.
Industries that could strengthen the fragile economy are hobbled by chronic power cuts. Deepening frustrations with those issues in some cases encourage people to give up on the state and join the Taliban and criminal gangs.
But it is clear the stakes are high. Any gaps in the anti-polio programme endanger hard-won gains against a disease that can cause death or paralysis within hours. A global effort costing billions of dollars eradicated polio from every country except Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, a strain from Pakistan spread northeast and caused the first outbreak in China since 1999.
Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation, said the group had been coming closer to eradicating the disease.
“For the first time, the virus had been geographically cornered,” he said. “We don’t want to lose the gains that had been made … Any suspension of activities gives the virus a new foothold and the potential to come roaring back and paralyse more children.”
MOURNING FAMILIES: Condemnation of the killings has been nearly universal. Clerics called for demonstrations to support health workers, the government has promised compensation for the deaths and police have vowed to provide more protection.
For women like Fehmida Shah, it’s already too late. The 44-year-old health worker lived with her family in a two-room house before gunmen shot her on Tuesday.
Her husband, Syed Riaz Shah, said she spent her tiny salary – the equivalent of just $2 a day – on presents for their four daughters. Even though the family was struggling, she always found some spare money for any neighbour in need. “She was very kind and big hearted. All the women in our lane knew her,” he said.
“The entire neighbourhood is in shock. Pray for my daughters. I will get through this. But I don’t know how they will.”
By: Qurban Ali Khushik
DADU: A rally taken out by scores of women of Sita village in protest over raids and arrests of their loved ones and the closure of every commercial activity in the locality was baton charged by police on Sunday before the participants could reach the Rajo Deero police station.
Eight women — Nasreen Soomro, Rizwana Soomro, Samina, Shabana, Pathani, Rizwana Solangi and Habul — were injured in the police action.
Tension continued in Sita village and its adjoining areas on a third consecutive day following the lynching of a 35-year-old unknown man who was arrested for allegedly desecrating the Quran. A mob had stormed into the Rajo Deero police station, beaten to death the suspect and torched his body.
To establish a hold, control and maintain law and order, the district police intensified patrolling in Sita village, Nandhi Sita, Yaqoob Machhi, Lalo Machhi, Khamiso Machhi and Gulan Machhi villages.
On Sunday, all markets remained closed and residents of Sita village and Nandhi Sita were facing shortages of supplies and potable water.
Also, the police carried out more raids in different areas causing fear among the locals. In the morning, three to four shops were opened and the residents of Sita village reached there to buy food items and vegetables but suddenly a team of police arrived there and beat up the residents forcing them to leave the shops and the shopkeepers to pull down their shutters.
Over 200 women took to the streets and held a rally in Sita village in protest over the police attitude. They marched towards the Rajo Deero police station and when they reached closer to the police station, the police resorted to a baton charge forcing to return to their homes.
Talking to reporters, Nasreen Soomro said that Sita village and surrounding areas had been under virtual curfew for the last three days.
She said they had launched a protest against the detention of their men and had gone to the Rajo Deero police station to know where they were kept but police had beaten them up. She said the police had failed to arrest real culprits who had killed a man and had torched his body. She said the police were detaining innocent persons.
The police also detained a local journalist, Jamil Abbasi, for an hour when he was recording the women protest. The Rajo Deero police snatched his camera and deleted the footage and then released him.
Dadu City ASP Omer Tufail, who had established a camp in Sita village, told Dawn that he was only overseeing the arrest of all those involved in the lynching of the suspect. He denied that the police had baton charged the women rally or they had detained the local journalist.
Dadu SSP Usman Ghani Siddiqui told Dawn that of the 21 suspects nominated in the lynching FIR, 10 had been arrested and efforts were going on to arrest the remaining suspects.
Sindh police chief Fayyaz Leghari also constituted a four-member team comprising DIG-Hyderabad Sanaullah Abbasi, DIG-Crimes Branch Farhat Junejo, SSP-Hyderabad and SSP-Dadu to probe the lynching of the 35-year-old suspect.
Talking to Dawn on phone from Sita village, ex-MPA and district president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Syed Mohammad Shah, said the police had detained over 100 innocent persons. He said the police were politically victimising the people of Sita village, Nandhi Sita and its surrounding villages.
He said that if the police were not stopped, ulema and political parties would be asked to launch protests against them. Senior Sindh minister Pir Mazharul Haq of the Pakistan People’s Party told a press conference on Sunday that although the Rajo Deero police had taken proper arrangements at the police station, action was taken against police officials for failing to secure the 35-year-old unknown suspect.
He said the police were trying to know facts about the suspect and a DNA test would be conducted to ascertain his identity. He said he asked the SSP-Dadu to release all innocent persons.
Meanwhile, Dilsha Bhutto, a leader of the secular forum, demanded a judicial inquiry into the lynching of a man within the remit of the Rajo Deero police station.
The held SHO of the Rajo Deero police station, Ghulam Mustaf Tunio, and seven other police officials were released after a session’s court of Dadu granted them bail.