January 23, 2013

2 gang rape accused arrested

TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN: Police arrested two accused of gang-rape and produced them before the court. Accused Laiq Chandio and Hassan Chandio had kidnapped a 15-year-old girl Navi Kolhi from Tando Ghulam Haider in the limits of Moya police and gang-raped her. The police arrested both accused and challaned them in the court of Additional Magistrate-II Tando Muhammad Khan and get their remand for four days.

Meanwhile, at least four people were killed in a road accident near Thatta . As per details, a pickup of fishermen was going from Shahbander to Karachi when a dumper-truck collided with it head-on near Gujjo. As a result, Suleman Jat, Siddique Jat, Muhammad Ali Jat and Amin Jat died on the spot, while the truck driver managed to flee from the scene.

The Nation

January 23, 2013

Conference on ’empowering women’ at Karachi Press Club on January 24

Shehrbano Saiyid, an independent documentary film-maker & amateur mountain climber, will address a press conference on “empowering women to reach new heights” at the Karachi Press Club here on January 24.

Members of Pakistan Women’s Expedition (PWE) – organised and led by Shehrbano Saiyid, an independent documentary film-maker from Karachi added a new chapter to the history of Pakistan’s mountaineering recently when PWE managed to summit three 6,000m peaks (close to 20,000ft) back to back within six days – a record not only for women but for all non-professional Pakistani climbers and trekkers. The entire trip was done under windy conditions when temperature dipped to -20°C.

The three summit expedition was arranged in collaboration with the Shimshall Mountaineering School – a mountain climbing training school established by a team of professional mountain guides and high altitude porters from the Shimshall valley.

Shehrbano Saiyid along with six Shimshalli women included in the expedition and students of the same school will also address the press conference. Short clips of the documentary and pictorial overview of this expedition will also be screened on the occasion. The purpose of the press conference is to give recognition to the unparalleled achievements of Pakistan Women’s Expedition in Pakistani high altitude mountaineering and to promote tourism and the cause of women in Pakistan.

Business Recorder

January 23, 2013

Making female education work

By: GULSHER PANHWER

Female education is a vital plank for girls/women empowerment. Educational policies from the very inception of Pakistan were geared to focus on quality, i.e. emphasising on increasing enrolment and then, according to policies and plans, including gender equality in education, which was to automatically follow. However, that has not been the case. Although in urban settings, where the private education sector is mushrooming, the public sector has some degree of functionality, quantity, quality, and gender balance in education is somewhat better.

However, in the rural areas of Pakistan, the situation is pathetic. Rural Sindh is the most neglected area as far as access to female education is concerned. The nongovernmental sector has played a laudable role in pioneering community participatory education models but this sector cannot replace the state as its financial and human resources are limited and short-term based. The Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) and Indus Resources Centre (IRC), under the dynamic leadership of Anita Ghulam Ali and Sadiqa Salahudin respectively, pioneered and successfully run such models in different rural and suburban parts of Sindh. BHP Billiton, a multinational oil and natural gas exploring entity, is also contributing in imparting education to hundreds of girls in mostly backward areas of Dadu district. However, the majority of the rural girls in Sindh still remain deprived of their basic right of education. Reportedly, the SEF is going to close down 250 schools in 10 districts of

Sindh in March this year, which will affect 1,500 pupils belonging to deprived parents — most of them girls. Similarly, hundreds of girls will keep studying in the schools run by local community-based organizations with the support of BHP till the funding continues to flow. The day the company washes its hands of these schools, it will be very difficult for the organisations to sustain them. What is needed is close coordination among different stakeholders; the government and international donors and philanthropists to prepare a long-term plan to sustain the ongoing educational facilities for girls, open schools where they are needed the most and make closed government schools functional once again. The girls’ schools in the public sector can be made functional and can run successfully if the capacity building of the teacher, community participation and monitoring side are assigned to the nongovernmental sector, without any political interference or pressure from teachers’ unions.

Daily Times

January 23, 2013August 20, 2013

As elections draw closer, (Trans) gender equality is nowhere in sight

By: Rabia Ali

KARACHI: The process of voter verification is in full swing in the city but one group – which had been led to believe that they would be standing in a separate line to put their thumb on ballot – is seething that this may not happen at all.

The transgender people of Karachi are in a limbo as they haven’t been issued new CNICs in which they would be listed as a third gender. In November 2011, the Supreme Court had ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to enlist them as a part of the voters list and had asked the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to expedite the process of issuing news CNICs so that there would be no hiccups.

But according to ECP’s statistics, only 26 of the 3,500 transgender people living in Karachi have new identity cards and are registered voters. This figure does not match the one which Nadra has – it says that it has issued CNICs to 47 transgender people.

“It has been one year and only a handful of us have new CNICs,” said Bindiya Rana, Gender Interactive Alliance’s president, while sitting in a dimly lit room in a house in Gizri. Rana was soon joined by other people from the community. One of them, who go by the name Shabo, angrily whipped out a receipt dated January 28, 2012. “A year has passed and I still haven’t received my new card!”

During the initial days of the registration campaign, the lucky ones who got their cards were those who had applied for the first time. The transgender people who have yet to receive their new CNICs are the ones who possess old identity cards, which list them as males.

Sarah Gill, the youngest amongst them, explained that people of their community don’t want to apply as they don’t want to go through the hassle. “The authorities are not issuing us new cards and we don’t want to lose our old ones.”

They claimed that the authorities have been coming up with ‘absurd’ demands to delay the process of issuing new cards. “At one point, they wanted us to submit a medical certificate. Why should we prove what we are?” asked Gill angrily. “Then the authorities demanded that those transgender people who were listing their gurus as guardians should be at least 18 years younger than them.”

The voting issue

The provincial election commission’s director, Muhammad Najeeb, said that those transgender people who don’t have the new CNIC can vote under their old ones. But he admitted that this may interfere with voter verification.

In any case, most eunuchs are not willing to vote. Kiran who had voted for the PPP in the last elections said the community will boycott elections. “None of the political parties have included us in their manifesto. Why should we vote for anyone?”

When asked about the delay with the new CNICs, Nadra’s spokesperson, Naz Shoeb, diplomatically stated that registration is open to all without discrimination. “We treat everybody equally.”

But for transgender people that day is far away. “We were happy that one day we would beat our chests and tell the world loudly that yes, we are Khawaja Siraahs, but this doesn’t seem to be happening,” said Rana.

The Express Tribune