December 13, 2022

Another minor girl found murdered

The body of a six-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered, was found in Gulshan-e-Maymar late on Monday night.

Police said the victim was tortured and her body was dumped near the bushes around an Afghan camp. Police took the deceased to a hospital for a postmortem examination. According to preliminary information, the girl was the daughter of Musa, a disabled person, and the family lived in the Afghan camp.

According to residents of the area, the girl had been missing since Monday evening when she went outside for playing. They searched her in the area, but all in vain. Late on Monday night, they found her body at some distance from the camp.

The victim was the fourth of six siblings. Police said the girl was suspected to have been raped, but they were waiting for the doctors’ report. This is the third incident of rape and murder of a minor girl in the last four days in the city.

Source: The News

December 13, 2022

Man, woman killed in Bajaur for ‘honour’

BAJAUR: A man and a girl were killed for honour in the hilly area of Mamund tehsil here on Monday. Residents and police said the incident took place in the Lowi Kharki area on Sunday night where relatives shot dead the 19-year-old girl along with a 21-year-old youngster allegedly for honour.

The bodies of both of the victims were shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospital for legal formalities by a team of police personnel.

Later, the bodies of both the youth and the girl were dispatched to Chinagi area of Utmankhel tehsil and Lowi Kharki locality of Mamund tehsil respectively for burial.

The youth was later laid to rest in his native Nili Chinagi locality located some 30km from the area of incident on Monday evening.

The police were unable to confirm till the filling of this report whether a case was registered or not.

Meanwhile, police foiled a bid of timber smuggling here on Monday and arrested a man.

According to a statement issued by the district police officer’s office, 20 sleepers of timber were recovered from a mini-truck apparently loaded with sand near Khar police station.

Later, the statement said, the wood, the truck and the driver were handover to the local forest department for further legal action.

Source: Dawn

December 13, 2022

Bridging urban, rural digital divide can help empower women: minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque on Monday said woman empowerment rested on bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas of the country.

“The government was committed to ending this divide and effective measures were being taken for digitalization in the country,” he said.

The IT minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan-ITU Digital Inclusion Week 2022 and announced that his ministry was taking every possible step for better digital future.

The two-day event is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of mainstreaming digital inclusion in Pakistan in addressing the digital divide particularly among people in vulnerable situations such as girls, children, and person with disabilities.

Syed Aminul Haque said that it was the top most priority of the government to empower women, and steps being taken to equip youth with digital skills is helpful in this regard.

He noted that the digital revolution characterised by artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and mobile robotics and many more such areas which were previously considered the technologies of the future, have now become the need of the time.

He said the government offered thanks to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for their splendid support for all the countries of the world in general and for Pakistan in particular, in the areas of women empowerment, Information Communications Technology (ICT) Accessibility and for Child Online protection.

Mr Haq said the ministry’s ICT for girl’s project was an important initiative to empower woman.

He said work on number of projects is going on for provision of telecom services in far-flung areas of the country, adding that the IT ministry had formulated the National ICT Council for Persons with disabilities with the aim to support the special people with assistive technologies and make them the earning members.

He said cooperation between ITU member countries regarding digital transformation is vital.

Source: Dawn

December 13, 2022

Domestic violence legislation ensures justice delivery, protection of women: FSC CJ

Acting chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court (FSC) Dr Syed Muhammad Anwer on Monday said that the recent judgment of the FSC passed in favour of the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act, 2016 helped to ensure women’s rights in the country.

Delivering a lecture on domestic violence at Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi in collaboration with the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), he said the provincial laws against domestic violence constituted major steps towards ensuring the delivery of justice and protection of women according to Shariah, which asserted that violence against women was forbidden in all forms.

He emphasized that Islam gave rights to women much before the West, but the only problem was that Islamic principles and commands had not been understood, analyzed, and implemented in their true sense. In this context, it was an achievement that such legislation, which was in line with the teachings of the holy Qur’an and Sunnah, had been implemented now to provide comprehensive protection to women in Pakistan against various crimes.

Highlighting the misconceptions regarding women’s rights he argued that the widespread confusion about women’s rights in Islam was because of the shallow understanding and misinterpretation of Islamic commands. He mentioned that Qur’anic verses demanded a deeper understanding and analysis and it was the responsibility of law students, practitioners, and Muslim society as a whole to learn the teachings of Islam holistically in the context in which these were given which would help to create awareness and formulate informed-decisions.

Criticizing the influence and wrong dictation of Western thoughts in Muslim societies, he emphasized that Islam allowed women to agitate for every genuine right and contact the relevant authorities for these rights and added that no other nation or ideology would be allowed to dictate Muslim women as Islam itself was a complete code which did not depend on the interpretation of the West.

Dr Muhammad Anwer further stressed that Islam left no lacunae for Muslims to be apologetic or reactionary. Instead, they should analyze the situation deeply, see where they stand vis-à-vis Islamic teachings, devise and implement Shariah law in the true sense, and shoulder responsibility to teach the true meaning of Islam and inculcate good and positive impact in society and the world through their conduct with woman.

Source: The Nation