Gender – Page 3 – Pakistan Gender News

February 4, 2015

Five girls die in Peshawar as slabs covering well cave in

By:Javed Aziz Khan

PESHAWAR: Five young girls were killed and eight other children sustained injuries on Tuesday when slabs placed to cover a well inside a house in Pishtakhara Bala caved in.Rescue workers rushed to the spot after a caller informed them about the tragic incident, an official said. Most of those killed or wounded were girls.

The provincial government has ordered a probe into the incident. The owner of the house was taken into custody after a case was lodged. “It was an old well that had been covered with concrete slabs. The cover made of slabs caved in under pressure when the children, who had come to the house for learning the Holy Quran, were sitting on the structure,” said Superintendent of Police (SP), Peshawar Cantonment, Faisal Shehzad, who along with SSP Operations Mian Saeed and other officers supervised the rescue operation.

The official said that up to 13 children, mostly females, fell into the well, now being used for sewerage water. “Eight kids were rescued alive while five died,” he added.Those killed in the incident were identified as daughters of Badam Gul, Wali, Mausam Khan, Alam and Major. The locals said a large number of villagers and rescue workers rushed to the spot in Pishtakhara Bala, a suburban locality of Peshawar, and made hectic efforts to save the children. Manu complained that the machinery reached the spot quite late and even then did not function for long. The MPA from the area, Fazal Ilahi, said the rescue work was delayed due to the traffic rush in Peshawar. The eight rescued kids were shifted to a hospital for treatment.

The News

January 27, 2015

Girl burnt alive for saying no to marriage proposal

By Sarfaraz Memon

SUKKUR: A teenage girl was set on fire by a young man in Kaltarpur Muhalla in Kandiyaro, Naushahro Feroze district, on Monday morning. The girl, who has received 60 per cent burn injuries, has been referred to a hospital in Karachi for medical aid.

Reports said that Sajid Qureshi, a cloth merchant and also a resident of Kaltarpur Muhalla, wanted to marry 18 year old Aqsa, daughter of the late Ikram Qureshi. The girl’s mother refused his proposal, as the man is said to be an alcoholic. Reports said that the man kept on pursuing her, but the girl’s mother and brother repeatedly refused his overtures.

On Monday morning, the accused Sajid Qureshi, who was reportedly drunk, broke into the house of Ikram Qureshi and tried to assault Aqsa. The girl resisted and started screaming for help. The accused then threw kerosene oil on her, set her on fire and fled, reports added.

Reports suggested that the girl’s mother and brother were not at home and rushed after hearing her screams and put out the fire, but by then she had received burn injuries on her face, hands and chest. The girl was rushed to the taluka hospital, where the doctors said that 60 to 65 per cent of her body was burnt, and referred her to a Karachi hospital.

Kandiyaro police, on the complaint of the girl’s brother Nabeel Qureshi, has lodged an FIR against Sajid Qureshi and arrested him. The SHO Kandiyaro Asad Nabi Khichi, talking to The Express Tribune, claimed that the man in question lives adjacent to girl’s house. According to him, this matter was going on for months and Sajid Qureshi’s proposal was refused more than once by the girl’s mother and brother.

Irked by the man’s pestering, the family had sought the help of some influential person and three months ago, the matter was resolved and Sajid had promised not to bother them again, the officer said.

The officer confirmed that on Monday, the accused allegedly broke into their house and threw kerosene oil on the girl and put her on fire.

Express Tribune

January 21, 2015

Man’s attempt to dispose of wife’s body foiled

SUKKUR: A group of villagers foiled a man’s attempt to throw his wife’s body into Kharriro Shakh (irrigation channel) in Bhooral Mirani village near Ghouspur town of Kandhkot-Kashmore district on Tuesday.

They called out the police and informed them that the man, Sono Mirani, was spotted throwing the body into the canal but upon seeing them, he left the body on the dyke and took to his heels.

Police took the body to the local rural health centre for a post-mortem examination. Later, they told the villagers that according to the initial investigation, Mirani shot dead his wife, Sahib Khatoon, 36, mother of 10, in their house on suspicion of disloyalty. A hunt for the suspect was started, they said.

Daily Dawn

January 7, 2015

Man chops off wife’s nose over suspicion

By Muhammad Sadaqat

ABBOTABAD: In an unspeakable act of cruelty, a man allegedly chopped off the nose of his wife after he suspected she had illicit relations with a boy from a nearby village, police and family sources said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media from the surgical ward of Ayub Medical Complex in Abbotabad, 17-year-old Naveeda Bibi*, the daughter of Nizamuddin of Allari village, Balakot, said she had tied the knot with Zamir from Shohal Mazullah village around three months ago.

Naveeda said soon after the marriage, her husband started beating her mercilessly over the smallest of issues.

Naveeda said her husband’s ‘justification’ for the abuse would be his suspicion that she was having an affair with a boy from her native village. “It is untrue [that I was having an affair],” she asserted. “Zamir himself was interested in a girl from the same village and wanted to wed her, but his parents arranged his marriage with me,” Naveeda told newsmen.

On the evening of January 4, Zamir came home from the market and started battering her without any reason, she said. The victim added Zamir called his younger brother Naseer for support. The brother gripped Naveeda’s head tightly while Zamir proceeded to chop her nose off and throw it outside the home.

“Before he fled, Zamir called some relatives and told them he had punished me for being disloyal,” she said, unable to fight back the tears. She said her husband concocted a story to justify his crime and lay the groundwork to marry the woman he always wanted to.

Hospital sources said the woman lost about one-and-a-half centimetres of her nose. They added the severed portion could have been stitched back on if it had been brought to the hospital shortly after the incident. They said she will need advanced plastic surgery—possibly abroad—to reconstruct her nose.

Balakot police registered a criminal case against Zamir and his brother Naseer under sections 324, 334 and 109/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). However, the suspects remain at large.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan district coordinator Madni Ejaz Jadoon, Sahira Khan of Human Development Organization, Ahsan Khan of Rural Development Project and Qamar Hayat of SAHARA Foundation strongly condemned the incident. They said it was a dark stain on Hazara division.

The human rights campaigners all agreed such incidents were increasing in Pakistan despite the fact that Islamic values and international and national laws on human rights teach us to protect women. They said such acts clearly demonstrated double standards in society.

Express Tribune

January 6, 2015

Gender discrimination

By: Anum Afzal

RAWALPINDI: I would like to raise an important issue through your newspaper which has long been troubling working women. About 80 per cent of working and university-going women use public transport in Rawalpindi on a daily basis. The trouble that they face every single day is the continuous refusal of van and bus conductors to let women board the vehicles. It is understandable on their part, as more men use public transport than women, but women are also an important part of our working population and need transport regularly. The refusal of conductors causes women to be late for work and classes.

Indeed, seats for women are reserved in front of public transport vehicles and behind the driver’s seat, but these are filled with men in the mornings and evenings, and there seem to be no laws to curtail this blatant encroachment of women’s rights. The Metro Bus project in Rawalpindi is appreciable in this regard but there is still time left in its completion and inauguration. Till then, some educated and honest officer of the Rawalpindi Transport Authority should look into the matter and resolve this problem for thousands of women of Rawalpindi. There needs to be widespread recognition that utilising public services is a basic right for women just as much as for men and that that women are an integral part of the workforce too.

Express Tribune