February 24, 2023

Torture victim moves court against harassment on social media

A medical student, who was allegedly kidnapped, tortured and filmed by the family of an industrialist, has submitted applications to the court and police officers to take action against two women over what she called ‘character assassination’ and harassment on social media.

Khadija Ghafoor, a resident of Sargodha Road, submitted her application to the police, the court and commissioner Faisalabad through her lawyer Rana Muhammad Sikandar Hayat Bhatti.

It was stated in the application that she was a medical student and registered cases in Police Station Women and Police Station Cyber Crime Wing Circle, which are being heard in the court of Additional and Sessions Judge Rana Saeed.

The application further stated that Sheikh Danish and the other accused were very influential people and have political influence in Faisalabad district.

Anna Ali Sheikh, daughter of Sheikh Danish and Zara Shakur threatened to kill her over not reconciling the case and took to social media. Police officers are investigating the matter.

In August of last year, video footage of Khadija being tortured by Sheikh Danish and his family went viral on social media.

Allegedly, Danish and five other suspects kidnapped and tortured Khadija. Police took action against the six suspects after the footage spread like wildfire on social media.

In the harrowing visuals, Sheikh Danish, who runs a lucrative textile business, can be seen mercilessly thrashing Khadija and hurling verbal abuse at their residence in the upscale Paradise Valley neighbourhood.

Danish and his daughter, along with other members of the household, cut Khadija’s hair and even made her lick their shoes, all while recording the abuse and humiliation.

Meanwhile, Khadija’s lawyer Aftab Bajwa stated before the court during a hearing earlier this month that due to Khadija’s “refusal” to reconcile with Danish, the administration of the University on Sargodha Road did not issue her roll number slip for her final year exam.

Source: The Express tribune

February 24, 2023

Teenage girl raped in Haripur

HARIPUR: A van driver and his accomplice has raped a teenage girl at a hotel near Khanpur Dam, police officials said on Thursday.

The police quoted the victim as saying that she was serving as a health worker in the Taxila area.

Source: The News

February 24, 2023

Barkhan case

The bodies of three persons, pulled out from a well in the Barkhan district of Balochistan, have thus far raised more questions than answers. There is still uncertainty surrounding the identity of the victims, the circumstances surrounding their deaths, the culpability of the accused, and the involvement of others, including the accused’s son. On one thing, though, some history is instructive: the minister accused in the Barkhan case, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, was found to have held at least seven people captive in a private jail back in 2014; the held included women and children. At the time, police had filed charges against the minister, his son and others for orchestrating the kidnapping and torture of three police officers. That one could still be a minister after the 2014 happenings speaks volumes as to how little sway the law holds over powerful men in Pakistan. For what it’s worth, Khetran denies the latest accusations against him, as he did in 2014, terming them as a political conspiracy to ruin his reputation and remove him from power.

The Barkhan killings are not the first such case. The institution of the ‘private jail’ has remained a challenge for years, carefully protected by the powerful and cloaked under layers of customary subservience to a system that thrives on depriving a whole layer of society its innate rights. We also need to look at the full spectrum of unlawful or extra-judicial imprisonment and unequal power relations and their implications for justice and rule of law. Even urban areas are no stranger to extrajudicial prisons – years of reports of political parties’ militant wings hosting torture cells and running a parallel-shadow justice system can provide testiomny to that. Urban sprawl has also seen real-estate businesses and corporations trample all over the rights of farmers and residents of small town and villages – expropriating their land, stealing their water and driving them from their homes, often with the implicit permission and, in certain cases, active support of the state authorities. Then there is the spectre of unlawful detentions and torture at the hands of police and other law-enforcement agencies, not least in Balochistan.

What has transpired in Barkhan – and other such private jails in tribal or feudal settings – is then part of a larger system based on the principle of might makes right. Whether it is a powerful sardar locking up innocent people or real-estate barons driving poor farmers of their land, individuals, businesses and institutions with great wealth, access and influence at their disposal can easily trample down ordinary citizens of modest means. The whole point of a justice system is to ensure that those with power do not become a law unto themselves. That there are standards that apply to all regardless of their position in the social hierarchy, that those on the lower rungs cannot simply be victimized – and that the powerful can and must be held to account. Preventing a repeat of the events at Barkhan requires standing up for the rights of the powerless regardless of the identity and affiliation of the alleged perpetrators.

Source: The news

February 24, 2023

Love-marriage couple killed

LAHORE: A woman and her husband were shot dead on Thursday, allegedly by her brother for contracting a love marriage in Multan.

The police said Afsana, 28, with her minor daughter and husband Waqas, 30, from Lodhran went to meet her mother Irshad Bibi in Shah Rukh-i-Alam Colony to settle the dispute when Afsana’s brother Irfan shot at and injured her and her husband and fled. They were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

The Shah Rukn-i-Alam police registered a murder case against Irfan and his mother, Irshad Bibi, on the complaint of Waqas’s father, Khadim Hussain.

He claimed Waqas married Afsana against her family’s wishes one and a half years ago. A false kidnapping case was filed against him.

He alleged that his son’s in-laws called the couple to settle the case and killed them.

South Punjab Additional IG Maqsoodul Hassan took notice of the double murder case and directed the city police officer to arrest the suspects and submit the report. The police

later arrested Irfan and also recovered the pistol from his custody and started the investigation.

Source: Dawn

February 24, 2023

‘A woman dies every two minutes during pregnancy, childbirth’

ISLAMABAD: Every two minutes, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth, according to the latest estimates released in a report by United Nations agencies, which emphasised that the world must significantly accelerate progress to meet global targets for reducing maternal deaths, or else risk the lives of over one million more women by 2030.

The report, “Trends in Maternal Mortality”, released on Thursday by WHO, Unicef, UNFPA, the World Bank and UN Population Division, reveals alarming setbacks for women’s health over recent years, as maternal deaths either increased or stagnated in nearly all regions of the world.

“It is unacceptable that so many women continue to die needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth. Over 280,000 fatalities in a single year are unconscionable,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem.

“We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives so that

every woman can get the lifesaving care she needs. We have the tools, knowledge and resources to end preventable maternal deaths; what we need now is the political will.“

In two of the eight UN regions — Europe and Northern America, and Latin America and the Caribbean — the maternal mortality rate increased from 2016 to 2020, by 17 per cent and 15pc, respectively. Elsewhere, the rate stagnated.

The report notes, however, that progress is possible. Two regions — Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia — experienced significant declines (by 35pc and 16pc, respectively) in their maternal mortality rates during the same period, as did 31 countries across the world.

“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world who lack access to high quality, respectful health care,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The report, which tracks maternal deaths nationally, regionally and globally from 2000 to 2020, shows there were an estimated 287 000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020. This marks only a slight decrease from 309,000 in 2016 when the Sustainable Development Goals came into effect. While the report presents some significant progress in reducing maternal deaths between 2000 and 2015, gains largely stalled, or in some cases even reversed, after this point.

The report says roughly a third of women do not have even four of a recommended eight antenatal checks or receive essential postnatal care, while some 270 million women lack access to modern family planning methods. Exercising control over their reproductive health — particularly decisions about if and when to have children — is critical to ensure that women can plan and space childbearing and protect their health.

Inequities related to income, education, race or ethnicity further increase risks for marginalised pregnant women, who have the least access to essential maternity care but are most likely to experience underlying health problems in pregnancy.

“For millions of families, the miracle of childbirth is marred by the tragedy of maternal deaths,” said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell. “No mother should have to fear for her life while bringing a baby into the world, especially when the knowledge and tools to treat common complications exist.

In total numbers, maternal deaths continue to be largely concentrated in the poorest parts of the world and in countries affected by conflict. In 2020, about 70 per cent of all maternal deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa. In nine countries facing severe humanitarian crises, maternal mortality rates were more than double the world average.

“This report provides yet another stark reminder of the urgent need to double down on our commitment to women and adolescent health,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, and Director of the Global Financing Facility.

Source: Dawn