November 11, 2016

Women urged to play their due role in socio-economic uplift

FAISALABAD: Agri Scientist have urged the women to play their role in socio-economic uplift with the tool of education, skills and their rights in order to compete with rest of the world.

While chairing a seminar on gender equality at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that women rights and empowerment was vital to achieve the dream of development. The women comprise 50 percent of the total population. We could not progress without involving them in social and economic life and bringing them into mainstream. He said that the women are excelling in the every field of life. He said that the education works as engine of growth to address social and economic issue. He praised the government for the taking the initiatives for the cause of women emancipation.

Talking about UAF initiatives, he said that the UAF had set up a hostel for 1000 girls with the funding of the Punjab Government. It is the largest hostel countrywide.

He said that the University was making all-out efforts to provide the modern facilities to the women. The gender ratio in the postgraduate programs is 47 women to 53 men. The Day Care Centre, Women Complex comprising four hostels with state-of-the-art residential and sports facilities, Career Development Centre and working women hostel had been added.

MPA Najma Afzal said that said that we will not achieve the sustainable development if we nor achieve gender equality. We should ensure the participation of women farmers in decision-making process. She said that women comprise largest percent of the workforce in the agriculture sector.

She said that the government was committed to provide them their due rights and empower them so that challenges of the modern era. She called for capacity building courses for the women farmers.

Dean faculty of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Iqbal Zafar said that women are playing an intensive role model not only as a house keeper but also as the working force in all aspects of life.

Dr Saira Akhtar said that women as mothers, sisters and daughters were playing a pivotal role for the development of the country. She stressed upon the need for women empowerment to end the poverty from the country. She said that the nation can’t make the progress without the active participation of women and providing them rights.

Business Recorder

November 11, 2016November 12, 2016

‘DNA evidence is most important clause in Anti-Rape Bill’

KARACHI: There are several instances where women have been denied justice in cases of rape on account of lack of evidence, while in one case even a court refused to accept DNA as evidence, said a women rights activist at an advocacy meeting on Thursday.

Seeking improved health-based response to gender-based violence (GBV), rights activist Anis Haroon said the most important clause in the Anti-Rape Bill of 2015 was the one about DNA evidence, as it was a scientific proof of rape.

Besides several human rights activists, officials of the home department, police and medico-legal officers also attended the meeting, which was organised by War Against Rape (WAR), a non-profit organisation, at Beach Luxury Hotel.

Given the importance of evidence, Ms Haroon said: “Isn’t it important to have a DNA laboratory in Karachi, which is a city of more than 20 million people, instead of sending samples to Islamabad?”

According to Ms Haroon, laws were useless until they were implemented. In this case, she said, it was imperative for the First Information Report (FIR) to be registered and followed by proper medico-legal tests.

“But we need to face reality and stop pushing things under the carpet,” said the activist, adding that one of the reasons behind the formation of WAR was people’s reluctance to report or talk about rape despite the increasing number of rape cases in the city in 1989.

“We only found out about them from word of mouth,” she said.

She also discussed post-rape rehabilitation and why going to police was important.

Earlier, the opening remarks were given by WAR programme officer Ruksana Siddiqui who discussed how the civil society organisation came into being in 1989. “We started working on the issue which was a taboo,” she said, adding that it was important to start a conversation about rape and Hudood Ordinance which people feared to talk about then.

These days, she said, they were going to different schools and communities in the metropolis to create awareness among students and parents.

WAR programme coordinator Nabila Qureshey explained some key findings and observations of the Anti-Rape Bill, 2015.

She said that along with DNA evidence, confidentiality, decision of appeal, and private courtroom hearing were positive aspects, but there were shortcomings also such as definition of rape, questionable quality of rape cases and punishment.

It was learnt after a consultation with police and other stakeholders that a rape survivor was never comfortable talking to a male investigation officer (IO), while there was a dearth of female IOs and MLOs, said Ms Qureshey, adding that female IOs were often threatened during a course of investigation.

Also, there was the issue of funding for DNA tests, need for forensic laboratory in Karachi and need to recommend female officers and police stations to rape survivors, she said.

The objective of the exercise, she added, was to build pressure on the relevant authorities for effective and sustainable implementation of the Anti-Rape Bill; secure survivor’s access to justice by effective adoption of protocols and procedures with regards to record keeping in GBV cases by the Sindh health department and strengthening medico-legal responses — standardised rape examination kits, consent forms in Urdu and English along with revised medico-legal certificates.

Besides, WAR was also seeking to develop a basic streamlined screening mechanism for survivors who approached medico-legal centres in Karachi.

MoU signed

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed by WAR and special assistant to the chief minister on women’s development Iram Khalid, on Thursday, for the purpose of networking and referral measures discussed at the meeting.

The programme was part of WAR’s project ‘Provide safe haven to GBV survivors through institutionalising two shelter homes and facilitating women survivors’ empowerment’ under USAID-supported Gender Equity Programme of Aurat Foundation.

Dawn

November 11, 2016November 12, 2016

Honour killings: SC tells Kohistan judge to submit fresh report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court sought a fresh report on Thursday from the sessions judge in Kohistan on the alleged honour killing of five girls on the orders of a jirga some years ago.

The two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, asked the sessions judge and the district police officer to visit the area and verify the claim of K-P police that the five girls were alive and well.

The bench rejected a rights activist’s proposal to get the administration to present the girls before the bench for verification. Justice Ejaz remarked that the Supreme Court, being a constitutional court, could not record evidence in such matters.

K-P Advocate-General Latif Yousafzai submitted an eight-page-long investigation report, claiming that the police made genuine efforts to piece together the facts surrounding the case.

The report also said it “has come to the conclusion that … the allegations made by the petitioner are incorrect”.

The case was reopened in August this year when Afzal Kohistani – on whose application the former chief justice took action in 2012 – filed a fresh plea, informing the court that he had new evidence that the five girls and three of their brothers had been murdered.

On October 19, the apex court gave K-P police two weeks for completing an inquiry in this regard.

According to the police report, submitted on Thursday, over the past two months, the SHO of Pallas police station visited the Gaddar Pallas village and contacted nine persons associated with the inquiry and recorded their statements.

Initially, Muhammad Afzal nominated five persons as witnesses. Statements of three persons were recorded under Section 164 CrPC before the senior civil judge Dassu, Kohistan and statements of two persons were recorded before the judge, Dassu on October 10, in which they denied that the incident ever took place.

Later, the DPO asked Afzal to present evidence to support his claim. The report stated that the petitioner, Muhammad Afzal, a permanent resident of Gaddar in Kohistan district, left his native village permanently along with his family and is residing at Behari Allae village in Battagram district.

The Express Tribune