By: Imran Mukhtar
Islamabad – Well-known human rights activist Marvi Sirmed yesterday filed an application with Kohsar police station against JUI-F Senator Hafiz Hamdullah for allegedly hurling threats and attempted to attack her in a TV show.
Sirmed and JUI-F lawmaker were present in a talk show of a private television channel to discuss recent incidents of honour killing when the latter reportedly attempted to thrash the human rights activist.
Sirmed has filed an application with Kohsar police requesting the police to book the senator for giving her verbal abuses and threatening her during the TV show. “Using filthy language, Hafiz Hamdullah threatened to rape and kill me,” Sirmed has said in the application.
Police have admitted the application and launched the probe.
A policy office told The Nation that they will contact the senator to have his version and then proceed with the case.
Meanwhile, the co-chairs and members of Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) has strongly condemned the verbal and attempted physical abuse by JUI-F Senator Hamdullah against human rights activist Marvi Sirmed.
“We also condemn a recent verbal abuse by parliamentarians against their women colleagues and it can no more be tolerated. We want to make it clear that according to recently passed legislations, there is zero tolerance against any such behaviour,” they said.
They said that this is also a violation of Article 25 of the Constitution and also a disregard of CEDAW to which Pakistan is a party. “We believe that such behaviour by those who represent us in the parliament would encourage such behaviour among general public. Tolerance of such attitude towards women by parliamentarians will further promote violence and harassment against women in the country that is already trying to recover from recent most intense inhuman cases of the burning of girls,” they added.
Co-Chair EVAWG, Rabeea Hadi said that the women rights activists and organisations demanded of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani to cancel the membership from upper and lower houses on such behaviours.
Hadi said that the current surge of such incidents of violence against women in Pakistan is demonstration of the fact that Pakistani state and successive governments have fallen miserably short of their commitment of protecting women and young girls against violation of the spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan and international guarantees.
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