March 2, 2019 – Pakistan Gender News

March 2, 2019

Govt to set up directorate for women development

ISLAMABAD:The Balochistan government has decided to establish a Directorate of Women Development in Quetta, aiming at extending maximum facilities and making them useful citizens of the society.

Bushra Rind, spokesperson of Balochistan chief minister told APP on Friday the provincial government had approved a piece of land in Quetta for setting up the directorate so projects related to women development could be initiated and executed within the scheduled time frame.

She said the government is also working to set up a women enclave to build shelter-homes, hostels and technical training centers for working women so they could perform their social responsibilities in an effective manner.

“Chief Minister Jam Kamal had directed the authorities concerned to extend maximum facilities to working women and ensure protecting of their basic rights,” she said adding the provincial government would encourage women to participate in economic activities for which it would provide all possible facilities.

Rind further added the government is also focusing to promote handicraft industry on modern lines and in this regard, a state-of-the-art ‘handicraft market’ is being set up in Quetta for women entrepreneurs.

She reiterated that the government would be provided financially support and assistance to women so they could execute their new business ideas and support their families.

The Express Tribune

March 2, 2019

No govt hostel for women in Sindh, PA told

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Friday that there were no official hostel arrangements for working women in the province.

Furnishing a statement and replying to written and verbal queries of lawmakers during Question Hour in the provincial assembly, Women Development Minister Syeda Shehla Raza said that there was an Annual Development Programme scheme by the name of ‘Working Women Hostel at Shaheed Benazirabad’.

However, she said, the project could not be launched as the designated building for the working women hostel was under the possession of police department.

The minister said only five rooms of the building were handed over to women development department. She said that ADP scheme was closed on reduced cost last year as the given accommodation was not sufficient for the purpose of hostel.

“Due to above reason, there is no working women hostel arrangement in the province [operated] by the women development department,” she added.

She said that working women hostel would be started in Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur and Sanghar after the completion of Women Development Complex in Karachi.

Responding to a question raised by opposition member Arif Mustafa Jatoi, she said that the women development department was not running any ladies club across the province.

Replying to another question asked by Mr Jatoi, the minister said that there were no “shelter houses”

under the administrative control of the women development department. However, the department referred cases to different shelter homes working under the administrative control of the social welfare department.

She said that efforts were being made to bring the shelter homes under the administrative control of the women development department.

Responding to a question raised by opposition member Rabistan Khan, the minister said that the women development department conducted several sessions on Child Marriage Restraint Act in all districts of the province.

She said that as many as 57 cases of child marriages were reported and action was taken against the violators.

The minister underlined the need of taking nikah-khawans and area councillors on board to deal with the menace of child marriages.

She said that the incidence of child marriage was on an upward trend in rural parts of the province where child mortality rate was high due to such marriages.

Responding to a question, she added that there was no officer working in her department on deputation. “No officer of the women development department is working on deputation in any other department either,” she said.

Dawn

March 2, 2019

10-year-old girl raped, choked to death

KARACHI:The body of a 10-year-old girl, K*, was found from the rooftop of a three-storey apartment building in the Railway Colony near Landhi Railway Station in Bin Qasim Town on Thursday. The child was found tied to the overhead water tank on the rooftop. According to the postmortem report, the child had been raped and subsequently strangulated to death with a dupatta.

Malir SSP Irfan Ali Bahadur told the media that the child’s family had been searching for her since Thursday evening. After several hours, they found her body, with her limbs tied to the water tank, on the rooftop of their three-storey apartment building, in which they lived in a ground-floor apartment.

The victim’s parents fainted at the sight of their child’s body. The girl’s maternal uncle said that neither did they have any personal enmity with anyone nor had they been involved in any dispute. He added that they didn’t know who to suspect of having committed such a heinous crime.

In custody

On Friday, police detained 16 suspects, who are all residents of the same building where the child lived and her body was found. Investigators have acquired samples from all the suspects, which will be sent for DNA analysis.

Protests

The family, accompanied by other residents of the area, held a protest demonstration at the National Highway near Ghagar Phatak, calling for the arrest of the perpetrator. MPA Muhammad Sajid Jokhio also participated in the protest. The National Highway was blocked for traffic for at least half an hour, causing long queues of vehicles to be jammed at the major thoroughfare. On hearing news of the protest and the resultant traffic jam, police officials reached the site and tried to negotiate with the protesters.

The family requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan and higher officials to ensure the arrest of “the beast” and punish him in a way that no one would ever dare commit such a crime again.

The victim’s father pleaded the police officials to arrest the perpetrator and bring him to justice. On receiving assurances of a thorough investigation, the protesters ended their demonstration. The family then left for their ancestral village in Qambar Shahdadkot for the child’s burial.

CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah took notice of the incident and ordered the Karachi Police chief AIG Dr Amir Sheikh to immediately arrest the perpetrator and submit a report of the incident.

Awaiting DNA results

Meanwhile, Medico-Legal Officer Dr Zakia, who performed the post-mortem, said that DNA samples and organ specimen had been collected from the victim’s body, which would be cross-checked with the DNA samples collected from the detained suspects.

The Express Tribune

The News: 16 men detained over minor girl’s rape and murder

Dawn: Minor girl found raped, murdered in Bin Qasim