December 30, 2014

Pressing need for awareness of working women’s rights: HRCP

KARACHI: There is a pressing need for greater awareness of working women’s rights, ensuring equal pay for equal work, irrespective of gender, and recognition of women’s contribution to society and the national economy, a consultation organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Monday concluded. Participants of the consultation on ‘women’s wages and employment’ called upon the government to recognise home-based workers (HBW) and domestic workers as labour so that the cover of social security could be extended to them. The participants in the deliberations said that the informal sector contributed 35 percent to the national economy and employed millions of workers, especially women. It was thus a matter of grave concern that these workers could neither unionise nor demand minimum wage or claim any of the other entitlements available to workers under Pakistan’s law and the country’s international human rights commitments. Khalida Ghous, a prominent human rights activist, presented a paper on employment trends, gender-based discrimination and exploitation and the wage gap between men and women engaged in identical or substantially similar work. Zehra Ali, senior office-bearer of a federation of domestic workers’ organizations, focused on HBWs and domestic workers, stating that in arriving at a coherent policy for these workers a particular difficulty had been agreeing on a uniform minimum wage because of the diverse nature of their work, particularly since HBWs were skilled workers. Social worker Dr Sajjad Ahmed made a presentation about occupational hazards and other health concerns for working women and the various issues regarding maternity leave. An exhaustive presentation on labour laws by Farhat Parween, civil society activist, highlighted the importance of collective bargaining for women workers. The participants included a large number of women workers, students, social activists, female doctors, civil society organisation representatives.

Daily Times

December 30, 2014

Include ATA in minor girl’s murder case, orders Khuhro

SUKKUR: Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has ordered the Larkana police to add sections of the anti-terrorism act in the murder case of a minor girl, Sindhu.

Five-year-old Fauzia alias Sindhu was assaulted and killed on Friday in Yar Muhammad Colony. The minister issued these orders while paying a visit to the victim’s house on Monday afternoon alongside Larkana DIG Saen Rakhio Mirani, Larkana SSP Kamran Nawaz and former MPA Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi.

Offering his condolences to the victim’s family, the minister directed the police to give priority to this case and warned that any laxity will not be tolerated.

The victim’s mother, Begum Khatoon, told Khuhro that her elder daughter’s wedding was scheduled to take place in a couple of days but has been postponed due to Sindhu’s murder. Khuhro assured her that all the expenses for her daughter’s wedding will be borne by him. He also announced to bear all the expenses incurred on the education of the victim’s elder brother, Ghulam Abbas Soomro, who is studying in class seven. He also ordered the Larkana DIG to establish a police picket near Sindhu’s house to provide them security against any threat.

Sindhu’s uncle Rasool Bux Soomro, while talking to The Express Tribune, expressed his grief at the brutal murder of his niece. “The accused have buried us alive by assaulting and killing our innocent girl,” he said, demanding that the government award them exemplary punishment.

SSP Nawaz told The Express Tribune that while one of the arrested accused, a 14-year-old boy, has confessed the crime, the police are investigating the case thoroughly as they do not want to leave any aspect unattended. He added that a high-level investigation team, comprising two senior DSPs and two senior inspectors, has been constituted to resolve this case. He also confirmed the addition of anti-terrorism act’s sections 6 and 7 in the already registered FIR by the victim’s mother.

Hindu Panchayat Larkana president and human rights activist Advocate Kalpana Devi strongly condemned Sindhu’s murder. She said that even though Younis will be tried in a juvenile court, what he has committed calls for capital punishment. She was of the view that a speedy trial should be held in this case and if the accused is not awarded death penalty then at least he should be imprisoned for life.
The Larkana police have so far arrested three accused, young boy and his uncles, Shoaib Jatoi and Niaz Jatoi. The 14-year-old has already confessed to his crime.

Express Tribune

December 30, 2014

Man kills wife, policeman for ‘honour’

SUKKUR: A man allegedly shot dead his wife and a policeman in Kandhkot town on Monday over suspicion of an extramarital affair between them.

According to the B-Section police, Ahsan Soharyani shot dead his wife, Amna Soharyani, and policeman, Noorullah Jagirani, at the Mai Masjid bus stop and fled.The bodies were taken to the Kandhkot Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination and then handed over to the heirs.

No FIR was registered against the suspect till late in the evening.

Meanwhile, a jirga (tribal court) held in Kechi Bajkani village near Tangwani town of Kandhkot-Kashmore district on Monday imposed a fine of Rs950,000 on a man who was found guilty of having an extramarital affair with a woman of his community.

The aggrieved pleaded its case during the jirga, headed by Wadera Sher Ahmed Bajkani, who also heard the other side and found Saader Bajkani guilty.

Saader Bajkani and his family were made to pay Rs50,000 to the aggrieved side on the spot and undertake to pay off the remaining fine amount within the next three months.

Accepting the ruling, the two sides declared an end to their hostility over the matter.

Daily Dawn

December 30, 2014

Man knocks at apex court’s door to get daughter back from Jamia Hafsa

By: Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD: The man who alleged that his daughter is being held in Jamia Hafsa, the women’s seminary in Lal Masjid, filed an appeal with the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court on Monday in hopes of having his daughter recovered.

Abdul Qayyum’s lawyer Muhammad Haider Imtiaz told Dawn that Mr Qayyum has requested the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of his plight and ensure the recovery of his daughter. Court officials have accepted his request and promised to respond to the request in a few days.

He said Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz has been using his influence to prevent him from getting his daughter out of the seminary. He expressed his faith in the Supreme Court and said he hoped that his daughter will soon be recovered.

Know more: Distraught man claims daughter being ‘held’ in Jamia Hafsa

In his application to the court, Mr Qayyum stated that his 26-year-old daughter Uzma was a final year student of a religious course in Jamia Binaat-i-Ayesha madressah in Muslim Town, Rawalpindi, when on June 16, 2014 she did not return home from the seminary in the evening.

Supreme Court has promised to respond in the coming days
Mr Qayyum said he approached the administration of Jamia Binaat-i-Ayesha and they informed him that she had left for home after class and they were unaware of her whereabouts. The girl’s friends told him that she had left for Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad.

“I was further informed that she was accompanied by a woman named Umme Hassan, wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz. Umme Hassan had been visiting Jamia Binaat-i-Ayesha regularly and been in touch with my daughter since 2013. She had been patronising her and urging her to enroll at Jamia Hafsa,” he said.

Mr Qayyum said that the next morning i.e June 17, 2014 he along with his wife and son, visited Jamia Hafsa where they met Uzma in the presence of Umme Hassan and two other women staff members of the seminary. Upon seeing her family, Uzma started crying but did not say anything.

Mr Qayyum said he told Umme Hassan that they wanted to take their daughter home but she refused and said she had dedicated her life to the ‘cause of Islam’.

“We were surprised to hear this as Uzma had never disclosed any such intentions to us before,” he said.

“We insisted that she be allowed to return home, but Umme Hassan refused and told us to come again the next day and meet her husband, Maulana Abdul Aziz,” Mr Qayyum said in the application.

When he, along with his wife and son, again visited Jamia Hafsa and met Maulana Abdul Aziz, he said: “The Maulana told us that Uzma did not wish to return home, that she was in safe hands and that there was no need for us to visit her anymore.

“This statement came as an absolute shock to us. I told the Maulana that being Uzma’s father, I could not leave her in the presence of ‘na-mehrams’ (unrelated persons) but all in vain,” he said.

Afterwards, he said he repeatedly attempted to get his daughter back but Jamia Hafsa management did not allow her to leave. Mr Qayyum said he also tried to wed his daughter to her fiancé Muhammad Imran but again he was not allowed to do so.

Mr Qayyum said in his application that on July 3, 2014, he approached the Commissioner of Islamabad and the police and was told to appear in court before Magistrate First Class Kamran Cheema.

The next day the court ordered that Uzma be sent to Dar-ul-Aman, a government refuge for distressed women, in Rawalpindi’s Shamsabad locality, for three days and directed the police to bring her before the court again.

But on the appointed date of July 7, the magistrate was on leave. He heard the case on his return on July 9 in his chamber, said Mr Qayyum.

While the parents sat in the courtroom, the magistrate ordered that Uzma be sent to Jamia Hafsa.

Extremely perturbed by the course of events, the father said: “We approached various Ulema, including Mufti Taqi Usmani, and requested them to intervene in the matter. Those who responded to our requests displayed their inability to persuade Maulana Abdul Aziz and Umme Hassan in this regard.”

“We also learnt from various sources that the administration of Jamia Hafsa brainwashes young, impressionable girls studying in various seminaries with the aim to convincing them to join Jamia Hafsa so that they can be used for the purposes of furthering the extremist agendas of Maulana Abdul Aziz and Umme Hassan, and their organisation – the Shuhada Foundation,” he said.

Rejecting the allegations at the time they were first made, Umme Hassan had hinted to Dawn that it was a case of Uzma running away from a forced marriage. She had also said that in the statement Uzma gave to the magistrate she had said that she did not want to return to her family.

Daily Dawn

December 30, 2014

Clinton, Oprah, Malala top list of women most admired

WASHINGTON: Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remains the woman most admired by Americans, followed by television icon Oprah Winfrey and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, polling agency Gallup said on Monday.

Clinton, a likely 2016 US presidential candidate, won the honour for the 13th year in a row, earning 12 per cent of the votes.

Winfrey garnered eight per cent, while five per cent chose 17-year-old Yousafzai, who survived being shot by the Taliban and went on to win the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting child education rights.

President Barack Obama was the most admired man, earning 19 per cent of votes, followed by Pope Francis on six per cent.

For the last seven decades Gallup has asked Americans who the men and women are that they admire most, anywhere in the world.

The question is open, a polling technique that appears to reward the long-standing fame of public figures such as Queen Elizabeth.

Hillary Clinton, who has been in the public eye since the early 1990s, has won the honour a total of 19 times since 1993.

Obama has been the most admired man for the past seven years. According to Gallup, the sitting US president almost always ranks first.

The poll was conducted between Dec 8 and 11 among 805 adults in the United States. Its margin of error is four percentage points.—AFP

Daily Dawn