September 4, 2016 – Pakistan Gender News

September 4, 2016September 6, 2016

Samia Shahid murder: SHO arrested for ‘negligence’ in dealing with case

ISLAMABAD: An SHO of Jhelum police has been arrested for showing negligence after a British-Pakistani woman was allegedly killed for honour in a village near Mangla.

Samia Shahid, from Bradford, was found dead in Pandori village in Jhelum District in the house of her first husband Shakeel Ahmed on July 20th. The family said she died a natural death.

However, her second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazim alleged that she was killed by her family as they disapproved of her marriage with him. On the basis of his complaint, Jhelum police booked Ahmed, and Samia’s father Muhammad Shahid for murder.

Both are in jail on judicial remand but have not been charged yet. A high-level team constituted by the Punjab government and headed by DIG Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh is investigating the case.

The investigation team on Friday, September 2 ordered arrest of Mangla SHO Inspector Aqeel Abbas for showing negligence in the case. Officials at Mangla Police Station confirmed that Abbas had been arrested.

Meanwhile, Mangla police have also arrested Shakeel Ahmed’s uncle Haq Nawaz for allegedly submitting a forged medical certificate to the police after Samia’s death.

A few days ago Haq Nawaz had submitted an application to the police seeking registration of a criminal case against Mukhtar Kazim for her “illegal marriage” with Samia. Haq Nawaz maintains that Kazim married an already married woman, which is a crime under the Pakistani law. “Shakeel Ahmed married Samia Shahid according to law on February 27, 2012 and has never divorced her,” the application reads.

Marriage certificate issued by the union council concerned is attached with the application. Nawaz maintains that Kazim and Samia married fraudulently and through fake documents in the UK.

“Samia Shahid, Mukhtar Kazim, Syed Abbas Shah and Zilak Shah prepared fake documents and impersonated Shakeel Ahmed before the UK authorities,” reads the application.

He has requested the police to book Kazim, Samia and the two other persons for impersonation, fraud, forgery and fornication. Police had also claimed that Ahmed confessed to strangulating Samia to death.

However, Barrister Masroor Shah, counsel for Haq Nawaz, said confession before the police had no value unless the suspect confessed before a court. “How could have Shakeel Ahmed appeared before the UK authorities when he has never travelled to the UK, as his passport shows?” questioned Shah.

He said they would move court against the police under Section 22-A of CrPC if the police did not register a case. The SHO has been booked for causing the disappearance of evidence and providing false information. Meanwhile, Samia’s father has applied for bail. The court will take up the case on September 10th.

The Express Tribune

September 4, 2016September 6, 2016

Equal Pays

The Gender Gap Index 2015 ranked Pakistan second from last among 145 countries in terms of prevalence of gender based disparities; the Index measures national gender gaps in economy, politics, education and health. The abusive treatment of this demographic majority is often attributed to illiteracy and patriarchal mind-sets, which cannot be fixed immediately. What can be rectified is that physical abuse be liable for state punishment, law and order is maintained such that women can be safe in Pakistan (especially in public places), and that economic benefits to women who work are the same as those given to men.

While it will take a long time to convince many in our country that men and women are equal as humans, at least the state can make sure that regardless of gender (or religion or ethnicity), salaries and wages are not discriminatory. In this vein, an interprovincial moot has developed a roadmap to minimise the gender wage-gap, which it said stood at 36% to 10%, in the next three years, moving a step closer towards implementation of the 27 UN Conventions on human rights. The decision was taken at the 12th meeting of the Treaty Implementation Cell (TIC) in the Ministry of Commerce, which was chaired by its Convenor and Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali.

Though it would be ideal to have wages equalise immediately, a three-year plan is more practical and corporations can slowly fall into line. However, the fact is that much of our economy is informal. Contracts are often not signed, or not enforced. This leaves much of the female population outside the ambit of any new laws that could protect them. While it will take time to make informal sectors come under the government’s radar so that they can be measured and taxed, it is encouraging to see that at least there will be some executive or legal framework for fair wages, and that government is acknowledging that improving human rights is an important objective.

The Nation

September 4, 2016September 6, 2016

The trouble with staring men

An excise commissioner from the Indian state of Kerala attracted much derision when he recently stated that a man staring longer than 14 seconds at a woman could get jailed. While no such law exists in India — in fact, such a law would be difficult to implement anywhere in the world — the statement does highlight a widespread phenomenon that millions of women in India and Pakistan have to deal with on a daily basis.

One of the major cultural tragedies of South Asia is that women have been objectified for ages. This is not to say that objectification of women does not exist in other cultures, but given the patriarchal nature of our societies and even laws, objectification of women here is more accentuated. Here, women have been viewed as statues to be bejeweled and flaunted at weddings, as robots to prepare timely meals in the kitchen, as people pleasers at the homes of their in-laws, and as objects to be stared down and examined with a judging eye. This ‘tradition’ of men staring at women continues to be passed down from one generation to the next. Whether the male is from Pakistan, where religious morals include lowering one’s gaze in modesty, or from India, which also derives a culture from similar teachings in modesty, makes no difference. Staring at women shows the male-dominated nature of our societies and the lowly status accorded to women, something that is further highlighted by the ease with which crimes can be committed against them. Whether it is the large number of cases of female rape in India or Pakistan’s epidemic of ‘honour’ crimes, the status of women in our countries is there for all to see. The Indian official’s statement should not be dismissed with mere amusement. While enacting laws against staring may not be possible, what is needed is a change in mindsets and the way moral values are imparted in South Asia. That may be the only way to curb the staring culture.

The Express Tribune

Related News:

Dawn: Treating addiction