August 17, 2016 – Pakistan Gender News

August 17, 2016

Mufti Qavi to undergo polygraph test in Qandeel murder case

MULTAN: Mufti Abdul Qavi will have to undergo a polygraph test after police included his name in the investigation process of the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, police decided on Tuesday.

Officials of Multan police told this correspondent that they seized two mobile sets of Mufti Abdul Qavi. These mobile phones were sent to Lahore for forensic testing, police officials added.

According to police, a decision was taken to arrest Mufti Qavi for conducting polygraph test.

Earlier, Mufti Abdul Qavi told media persons that one of his mobile phones was not in working condition after he dropped it into water. Police officials said that Abdul Qavi’s mobile number had been switched off for the past several days. There also had been rumours that he had escaped in a bid to evade police investigations.

Mufti Abdul Qavi told The Express Tribune that he had not gone anywhere and all such rumours were false.

According to him, he had been at his Madressah for the past 10 days.

Last month, Qavi failed to appear before police to record his statement for the ongoing investigation of the murder of Baloch. The investigation team then sent him a 14-point questionnaire. Among other things, he was asked about his last meeting with Baloch.

Talking to newsmen after receiving the questionnaire, Qavi said he would respond after consulting his lawyer.

“I will cooperate with whichever institution contacts me for this investigation,” he said. Qavi said he also would make public his statement to the police.”

“I met Qandeel once,” he said. “We met in a crowded hotel. She asked for a private audience. I agreed. She said she wanted to meet me because she wanted to discuss religion.”

He said Baloch had then taken some pictures with him and left.

The Express Tribune

August 17, 2016

SHC allows woman who converted to Islam to live with spouse

Karachi: The Sindh High Court allowed on Tuesday a woman, who had converted to Islam, to live with her spouse and directed police to provide protection to the couple.

The directives came on a petition filed by Fatima, who had moved the court against the registration of a false kidnapping case against her spouse, Mohammad Riaz.

The petitioner submitted that she had married Mohammad Riaz after converting to Islam in Hyderabad but her family, annoyed over her decision, had a kidnapping case registered against her spouse and in-laws.

She said her family had called a jirga, which declared them karo-kari, and expressed fear for her and her husband’s lives.

The family of the petitioner alleged that she was kidnapped, forcibly converted and married to Riaz.

They also sought the constitution of medical board for determining her age as according to them she was a minor.

The court on a previous hearing had ordered the constitution of medical board for determining her age. The medical board informed the court that the age of the petitioner was 16.

The proceedings took a dramatic turn when the petitioner first retracted from her petition and earlier statement.

However, when the court ordered to send her to shelter home, she again stated that she being pressured by her parents and she wanted to live with her spouse.

She also informed the court that she was pregnant.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Abdul Rasool Memon after taking the statement of the petitioner on record allowed her to live with her spouse and directed the police to provide protection to the couple.

The court observed that the medical report regarding determination of the age of petitioner would be considered on August 31.

Security of schools

The SHC directed the provincial law officer to submit compliance report on the provision of foolproof security to public and private schools in the province.

The directives came on a petition filed by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education Research and others seeking effective security and protection of the educational institutions of the province.

The petitioners submitted that after the December 16, 2014 attack on the Army Pubic School in Peshawar that killed over 130 students and teachers, educational institutes across the country were facing the threat of a similar attack by banned organisations.

They submitted that as per intelligence reports, published in the media, welfare schools run by communities in Karachi were at a higher risk and some private institutions and schools had also complained that they were receiving threats.

They said that Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the the Islamabad Capital Territory had formulated a standard operating procedures and directed school administrations to adopt measures, including raising boundary walls, topped with razor wires, installing CCTV cameras, etc. However, they added that nothing had been done to promulgate such a SOP in Sindh, where the authorities had put the responsibility of educational institutes’ protection either on the school management or the parents.

The News

The Express Tribune: Free will marriage: Khairpur police arrest five men for poisoning couple

The Nation: Selling of infants

August 17, 2016August 17, 2016

SHC seeks details of women development dept’s programmes

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Monday the advocate-general to submit a report regarding allocation of budget and programmes launched by the women development department.

A single bench, headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, sought these details while hearing a petition against harassment. The petitioner, Nighat Dakhan, had sought protection against harassment. The court had issued a show-cause notice to the provincial chief secretary, directing him to explain what measures were being adopted for protection of women rights and ending harassment.

On Monday, chief secretary Muhammad Siddique Memon submitted through advocate-general Zamir Ghumro that within three months, the women development department is going to set up a powerful commission under the Status of Women Act, 2015.

He said that the nominations have also been invited through media for the posts of chairperson and 21 members of the women rights body. The relevant deputy commissioners will head these centres, Ghumro said, adding that the government has provided funds to the authorities for the establishment of these centres. The provincial law officer undertook before the judges that serious action will be taken against honour killing.

Taking Memon’s statement on record, the bench vacated the show-cause notice issued to him. Fixing the matter after 15 days, the bench exempted the secretary, the commissioners and deputy commissioners from personal appearance till further orders.

The Express Tribune

August 17, 2016

Orangi rape case: Shoddy investigation delays quest for justice

KARACHI: Faiz Rehman`s eyes were soaked with tears. With his trembling hands he pointed towards the pictures of her deceased daughter, framed on the walls of his house situated in one of the relatively better settlements of Orangi Town.

“She is gone. Nothing can bring her back. But as a father is it unfair for me to ask for swift justice against those who mercilessly raped and killed my six-year-old daughter,” he questioned.

On January 25, Rehman and his family were attending a wedding at the Shehnai Marriage Hall in Orangi Town when their daughter went missing. The family registered a missing person’s complaint the next day, contacted the nearby mosques to regularly make announcements, but all their efforts went in vain.

On January 31, their daughter’s body was found floating in the underground water tank of the wedding hall. Initial medical examination of the body revealed that the child had been tortured and raped.

Even after the tragic loss of their daughter, the test for the Faiz family is not over as even after seven months, not a single charge has been framed against the 19 employees of the wedding hall who were put behind bars after the incident made waves on television channels.

“We can’t present charges in the court until we receive the DNA reports,” said the investigation officer of the case, SP Akhtar Farooq, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Mismanaged inquiry

An investigation into the case reveals a series of lapses on part of the investigators.

In a meeting on March 18, headed by Crime Investigation Agency DIG, the victim’s parents were informed that the chemical examination of their child’s clothes sent to a private laboratory in Lahore found no evidence of rape – the observation completely contradicted the first chemical tests held in Karachi`s Sindh Government Services Hospital.

A six-member medical board was then formed to look into the contrasting chemical reports. According to its findings, which were relayed to Faiz, the victim’s piece of clothing which had blood marks was at the services hospital – the police had sent the wrong piece of clothing for examination.

On April 27, in a letter to the investigation officer, the medical board recommended the authorities to revisit the chemical examination on the original fabric at a forensic lab in Islamabad.

Ironically, the mismanagement was not only limited to the chemical examinations, as on August 11 this year, the investigation officer informed the city court that one of the tubes with blood samples of the accused was found broken by laboratory staffers in Islamabad and the DNA test cannot be completed until the cross-matching of the samples take place, for which all the samples must be present.

“We are now going to send a letter to the additional district judge (West), asking permission for the medical examination of one of the accused in a week,” informed SP Farooq.

‘Helpless’

According to Rehman, he has been approached by the wedding hall staffers for an out-of-court settlement.

“They know that I am poor and they want to take advantage of it but as long as I have my wife with me, I will fight for justice for my daughter till my last breath,” he said, adding that, “My biggest fear is that due to the incompetence of state institutions, the accused may go scot-free.”

The Express Tribune

The News: Girl gang-raped for several days