January 21, 2023

Girls’ schools in Torghar demanded

MANSEHRA: Complaining that there is not a single girls’ high school in the entire Torghar district, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party on Friday demanded of authorities to ensure the easy access of local women to formal education.

It also called for the protection of women’s other rights.

Participants of a PkMAP meeting in the Nusratkhel area here warned that if their demands weren’t met, street protests would be staged across the region.

They said the status of Torghar was changed from a tribal belt to a settled district in 2011 but it lacked basic facilities of life.

The participants demanded protection of women’s rights, especially their right to formal education, as well as a share in Tarbela Dam’s royalty for the district.

PkMAP district president Zahid Khan said the absence of a girls’ high school in the entire district was tantamount to depriving women of their right to own development.

He said the government should immediately build schools and colleges each in three tehsils of the district.

Mr Khan also called for the early completion of work on the Judbah-Thakot Road to link Torghar with the Hazara Motorway saying lack of infrastructure and roads is blocking the district’s development.

Former provincial assembly candidate Laiq Aziz Shah, who was also in attendance, complained that the government hadn’t completed work on the district headquarters hospital and other development projects despite the passage of several years.

He said Torghar was notified as a settled district in 2011 but the residents continued to live a miserable life due to a lack of facilities, including education and healthcare.

“Though the provincial government announced many development projects for the district over the years, none of them has been completed,” he said.

Source: Dawn

January 21, 2023

Love-marriage couple kidnapped, woman gang-raped in Faisalabad

TOBA TEK SINGH: A love-marriage couple from Okara was allegedly kidnapped by five people dressed in police uniform from a house in Faisalabad’s Chak Garh Fateh Shah on Jan 13 night.

They took them to an undisclosed place, where two of them gang-raped the woman.

The couple said they were living in the house of a friend of the groom when the gang kidnapped them. After the gang rape, the gang dropped them off at Mushtaq Chowk on Jan 14 at 5am.

The Garh police registered an FIR on Friday against two nominated suspects. The suspects snatched two mobile phones, a golden earring, and a ring.

The Faisalabad police spokesperson said the raids were being conducted to arrest the suspects.

Source: Dawn

January 21, 2023

Four jailed for life in girl’s gang rape case

KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has sentenced four men to life imprisonment in a case pertaining to the gang rape of a class-VIII student, filming the incident and sharing its video on social media in 2021.

The four men — Muzammil, Subhan, Adeel and Aarez — were found guilty of sexually assaulting the 12-year-old victim on Jan 12, 2021 within the jurisdiction of the Memon Goth police station.

The ATC-IV judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge noted that the prosecution had successfully proved the charge of rape against the accused persons.

They were also handed down five-year imprisonment each for intimidating the victim into hushing up their crime.

Prosecution says accused also filmed the act and shared video on social media

During the trial, the victim had deposed that she was in touch with accused Adeel, who asked her one day to contact their mutual friend Subhan.

Upon contacting, she added, Subhan invited her to his house to meet his family members on Jan 12, 2021.

The victim testified that when she went to Subhan’s house, he said his mother was coming, but on the contrary three accused — Muzzamil, Adeel and Aarez — came there.

She said Adeel pulled out a knife as others pushed her on the bed and subjected her to gang rape and threatened her of dire consequences if she disclosed the incident to anyone.

The victim further told the court that the accused persons also filmed the act, adding that she remained silent out of fear, but after a few days, the accused persons shared the video in different WhatsApp groups.

As she recorded her statement before police under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the families of the accused started exerting pressure on her to change her statement and refrain from implicating their boys.

However, the victim deposed that she rightly picked out them as her rapists during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate and also recorded her statement.

Advocate Muhammad Khan Sheikh, the counsel for the complainant, argued that in the cases where a rape victim was minor, her statement itself was sufficient evidence to convict accused persons in the light of a Supreme Court ruling.

He stated that the evidence, including the medico-legal examination as well as forensic analysis of the video and mobile phone of the accused, fully connected them with the commissioning of the offence.

He asked the court to punish them according to the law.

In their statements, recorded under Section 342 of the CrPC, the accused persons had denied the allegations and pleaded innocence.

They asked the judge to acquit them of the false allegations levelled against them by the prosecution.

A case was registered under Sections 376-ii (punishment for rape), 506-B (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on the complaint of the victim’s family.

Source: Dawn

January 21, 2023

Educated women must play role in all spheres of life: Governor

Punjab Governor Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman said on Friday that educated women must play a proactive role in all spheres of life including health, education, political and business, and promised that the government would fully complement their efforts to become an equal partner of nation-building activities.

He was addressing the 2nd convocation of Government College Women University Faisalabad (GCWUF) here. He appreciated the excellent role of girl students and said that the ranking of GCWUF had improved substantially and its benefit must be passed on to the female students.

He advised girls to become part of healthy activities by exhibiting patience and forbearance, instead of indulging in negative activities. He stressed the role of women in the socioeconomic development of Pakistan and said that the PMLN had opened doors of higher education on women and, during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif, many women universities were established across the country. These universities encouraged girls to harness their skills and play their role in the overall national development, he added. He said that the universities actually provide a platform to its students to suggest solutions to current and emerging problems by translating their theoretic knowledge into the practical form. He said that research acutely opens new avenues of progress and prosperity and women should also play their role in national development by clearly iden-tifying good from the bad.

He said that girls should not trust rumours as fake news were rife on the social media. Dissemination of such news creates anarchy and chaos in the country and due to this reason intellectuals from all over the world are promoting the philosophy of tolerance. “We should also not shun our moral values, rather defend our self-respect in every field,” he added.

He further said that women are half of our population. They should also play their role in the politics but they must stick to the basic principles of truthfulness and righteousness, he added.

GCWUF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Robina Farooq also addressed the function and informed about the achievements and development projects of the university in the past years.

The Punjab governor also conferred degrees and medals on GCWUF students. As many as 6,072 students were awarded degrees during the convocation. Among them included 26 PhD scholars, 206 MPhil/ MS, 1,736 MA/MSc and 4104 BS graduates.

Source: Pakistan Observer

January 21, 2023

Man kills wife over refusal to borrow money from brothers

A man killed his wife, stated to mother of three children, after she refused to borrow money from her brothers.

Police said that accused Ijaz hailing from Baba Farid Town Jehanian-Multan Road Khanewal asked his wife Shagufta to borrow for him from her brothers.

However, Shagufta refused after which the culprit killed wife by strangling her and fled the scene. Neighbours of the deceased lady said that the accused used to torture his wife on daily basis over domestic issues. The body was shifted to hospital where it was handed over to heirs after postmortem.

Source: Pakistan Observer