Chakwal: Girl shot for listening to music

25/11/2014

CHAKWAL: A sixteen-year-old girl was gunned down in Matan Kallaan village located in tehsil Kallar Kahar of Chakwal district, police sources said on Monday.

Munsib Khan told Kallar Kahar Police that he left his home early in the morning for work.

His younger brother, Muhammad Gulistan, alias Gullu, came to his house at 10am.

Gullu found his niece, Rihana Bibi, listening to music on a tape-recorder with the volume turned up. He asked the girl to switch off the tape-recorder but she refused. This led to a fight between the uncle and niece.

Enraged by the girl’s defiance Gullu shot his niece.

“Two bullets were fired at the girl. One hit her in the head while the other on her face. She died on the spot,” a police official at Kallar Kahar Police Station told Dawn. The accused fled from the village after committing the murder.

Investigation Officer Ali Akbar said the killer will be arrested soon. “We have registered a case against him and are making efforts to trace him,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 25th , 2014

Pakistan’s Hidden Shame: Documentary reveals horrors of pedophilia in K-P

Sep4,2014

Director Mohammed Naqvi,and British producer Jamie Doran's film Pakistan’s Hidden Shame depicts the shocking reality of sexual abuse faced by small boys in the Northern areas of Pakistan.

The documentary premiered on September 1 on Britain's Channel 4 and shows the "dark reality of a society living in denial."

Set mainly in Peshawar, the film shows homeless boys of different ages recalling their experiences of sexual exploitation.

In an interview with CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, the director of the documentary told her what puts children at risk in Pakistan and around the world.

"Pedophiles by their very nature are inadequate, it's about power over children."

"Where these individuals are able to use and abuse vulnerable children, Pakistan in particular because of the poverty. That's one of the other factors that really plays here."

n the documentary, the narrator introduces Pakistan as 'one of the most important Muslim populations, a democracy, a nuclear power and a supporter of the Western bloc.' But it soon reveals the silence and denial on one of the most taboo topics: pedophilia.

The documentary alleges that 9 out of 10 children in Peshawar have been victims of pedophilia. It also contains interviews with truck drivers who have committed such crimes.

Shockingly, one of the drivers admits, without any remorse, to having raped 11 or 12 boys. 

Doran also questions Imran Khan whose party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which has Peshawar as its capital.

"It's one of the most sad and shameful aspects of our society. I am totally embarrassed by this and that we have not really been able to protect them," Khan said. 

Disturbing Rotherham child abuse report

The release of the documentary overlaps with the alarming revelations of a report released from Rotherham, the Northern English town where abuse, grooming and trafficking of 1,400 girls by predominantly Asian men over a 16-year period.

According to Reuters, the independent report last week exposed the scale and graphic nature of the crimes and raised difficult questions about whether timidity about confronting the racial aspects of the abuse had prompted authorities to turn a blind eye.

Some of the victims, mainly white girls in social care homes, were as young as 11 and were plied with drugs and alcohol before being trafficked to cities across northern England and gang-raped by groups of men, predominately of Pakistani heritage, the report said.

Those who tried to speak out were threatened with guns and made to watch brutal gang rapes. Their abusers said they would be next if they told anyone. One girl was doused with petrol, her rapist threatening to set her alight.

The report added that senior managers in social care "underplayed" the problem while police regarded many victims with contempt.

Government to legislate for the protection of children’s rights,CRM

20/11/2014

SLAMABAD: “There is no child protection system in Islamabad Capital Territory and a number of bills related to children’s right are pending at the National Assembly (NA) level,” Habiba Salman, Child Rights Movement (CRM) National Coordinator, said while speaking to participants of a conference titled ‘25 years of the UNCRC and the State of Child Rights in Pakistan’ at Quaid-i-Azam University.

The conference was jointly organised by CRM and Quaid-i-Azam University. Speakers urged the government to legislate for the protection of children’s rights. Pakistan signed and rectified United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, but is yet to make any progress towards providing protection, health and education to its children.

Ms Salman said the government needs to play a role in ensuring enactment of the national commission on Rights of Children Bill, prohibition of corporal punishment bill and child marriage restraint amendment bill. Malnutrition has become a key concern for the country, she said.

“According to Unicef, 352,000 children die every year in this country, and an estimated 35 per cent of these deaths are attributed to malnutrition,” she said.

She added that one sees no urgency, or commitment at the federal and provincial levels to respond to this situation by implementing strategies and increasing budgetary allocations.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Muhammad Zaman, QAU Department of Sociology chairman, said Pakistan’s future is linked to its children and Quaid-i-Azam University is going to include the issue of child right in its curriculum.

“At the Department of Sociology, we have designed a course on Sociology of Child Rights, currently awaiting approval, this will sensitise students to children’s rights,” he said.

QAU Acting Vice Chancellor Dr Eatzaz Ahmad highlighted academia’s role in the promotion of child rights in Pakistan. “Pakistan being party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is responsible to formulate strategies for future course for academia, society, national and international institutions and the federal and provincial governments to promote child rights in the country,” he said.

“The academicians, scholars, researchers, students and NGO activists must develop theoretical, conceptual and empirical work to analyse and understand the current state of child rights in the country,” said Prof. Dr. Aliya H. Khan, QAU Faculty of Social Sciences Dean.

Stefano Gatto, European Union Delegation Deputy Head, said the European Union welcomed Pakistan’s ratification of the most core international human rights conventions.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the chief guest, apprised participants on the steps taken by the government for the implementation of the UNCRC.

Arshad Mahmood, Save the Children, Director Advocacy and Child Rights Governance also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014

Make prostitution legal, Indian sex workers demand

10th November 2014 
Hundreds of sex workers with their children and family members participated in a rally to demand better legal protection of sex workers, claiming that better laws will reduce human trafficking and exploitation. The rally was organized by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee. Approximately 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal state are fighting for their rights.

Honour killing: Men kill mother and step-sisters in Lahore

11/11/2014

LAHORE: In an incident of honour killing, two brothers killed their mother and two step-sisters in Township area of Lahore on Tuesday, police said.

The brothers Shehzad and Asif used a dagger to kill their mother Sughra Bibi, and step sisters Muqaddas and Amna in the name of honour, with the investigation officer saying the accused did not trust the women and quoted them as saying they had bad character and indulged in wrong activities.

The investigation officer also said that the accused have pleaded guilty to the murder and they have been arrested. The weapon has also been taken into custody.

The bodies of the deceased have also been taken to the mortuary for postmortem investigation.

Honour killing is a common practice in Pakistan that is prevalent all over the country. Recently, capital punishment was given to a man found guilty of shooting his sister in 2011 in the Ali Mir Shah village in Sindh.

Six out of 10 Indian men admit to violence against partner: study

NEW DELHI: Six out of 10 Indian men admit they have acted violently against their wives or girlfriends, with those facing financial difficulties more likely to carry out abuse, a study released on Monday said.

Some 52 per cent of women surveyed across the country reported suffering some form of physical, emotional or sexual violence in their lifetime, including being kicked, hit, choked and burned, the study said.

The report by the UN World Population Fund and the Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) underscores the high rates of abuse facing women in the deeply patriarchal country.

“The study puts a spotlight on the high prevalence of intimate partner violence in India,” the study said.

“Regardless of age, men who experience economic stress were more likely to have perpetrated violence ever or in the past 12 months,” according to the study called “Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference”.

“Educated men and women who were 35 years old or more were less likely to perpetrate or experience violence,” it also said.

India has faced intense scrutiny in recent years in the wake of a series of high-profile rapes that have unleashed a wave of public anger against its violent treatment of women.

The fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi in December 2012 sparked massive street protests and led to tougher laws for sexual offenders.

Despite the laws, horrific violence against women continues to hit the headlines on a daily basis, with experts stressing the need to better educate young men about the importance of sexual equality and respect.

The study is based on interviews with more than 9,000 men and 3,000 women aged 18 to 49 and conducted across seven Indian states.

“We need a holistic approach to tackling violence and deeply ingrained harmful norms,” ICRW regional director Ravi Verma said in a blog post on the centre’s website.

“It is imperative that we reach boys at the early stages of childhood to teach them healthy and non-violent forms of masculinity while their identities are being formed.”

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2014

50 villagers held over burning of Christian couple to death

04/11/2014

KASUR: Police arrested on Wednesday 50 villagers who were part of a mob which reportedly burnt alive a Christian couple in a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan for allegedly desecrating pages of the Holy Quran. The woman, mother of three, was pregnant.

Kasur District Police Officer Jawad Qamar confirmed the arrests and said a local religious leader had fanned the issue. But the DPO did not disclose his name.

Police and witnesses told Dawn that announcements had been made from mosques on Tuesday asking villagers to gather at the Yousaf brick kiln where 25-year-old Shama and her husband Shahzad Masih worked as bonded labourers.

Over 1,000 charged people from three villages took out the couple from a room (where they had taken shelter) after tearing apart its roof. The mob tortured the couple before putting them into the kiln’s furnace.

The mob held hostage five policemen who tried to rescue the couple. The villagers also manhandled some media personnel and snatched their cameras.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the incident and the latter constituted a three-member committee comprising the secretary of minority affairs, chairman of CM’s inspection team and additional IG to investigate the matter.

On instructions of the chief minister, Kasur police enhanced security of the Christian community in the village and in Klarkabad, mostly inhabited by Christians about 3km from Chak 59, the place of the incident.

Police registered a case against 660 villagers, including 60 who have been nominated in the FIR. Police also blocked all routes leading to Chak 59 and Klarkabad.

There are about 12 houses of the Christian community in Chak 59 and all the residents had left the village when this correspondent reached there on Wednesday. The local Muslim population also left the villages because police were raiding their houses. 

The village wore a deserted look and its only market comprising some makeshift shops was closed. Police were deployed at various corners of the village.

According to the FIR lodged on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Mohammad Ali of Chowki Factory Area, police received information that villagers were torturing a Christian woman and her husband. A police team comprising five personnel reached the place but about 600 charged villagers had besieged a room where Shama and Shahzad Masih had taken shelter for fear of the mob. Some villagers tore apart the roof of the room and forcibly took the couple out.

They thrashed the couple before dragging them to the kiln where 18 accused, including the kiln owner Mohammad Yousaf Gujar and his accountants Shakeel and Afzal, allegedly removed a lid from one of the openings of the furnace and threw the couple into it.

“Both Shama and Shahzad were reduced to ashes in no time,” the FIR said.

It said that 60 accused nominated in the FIR, including the kiln owner and his staff, had incited the villagers to violence by managing announcements through loudspeakers of the mosques in Chak 59, Chak 60, Chak Rossa and Chak Bhail. The accused burnt the Christian couple alive, beat up police officials and fanned a mass hysteria.

The Kot Radha Kishan police station registered the case under sections 302, 436, 201, 148, 149, 353 and 186 of the PPC and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

On Wednesday, police produced 43 of the arrested people before an anti-terrorism court which remanded four of them in police custody and sent 39 others to jail on judicial remand.

Bilqees, a local Muslim resident, told Dawn that Shama, known in the village as Saima, married Shahzad Masih about eight years ago. They had three children aged between two and seven.

She said Shama was pregnant at the time of the incident. Nazir Masih, father-in-law of Shama, was a faith healer and died a few weeks ago. After his death, Shama had burnt some of his belongings, including papers. 

Answering a question, she said Shama was illiterate.

Bilqees said a vendor who had visited the brick kiln found the pages of the Holy Quran and showed them to the villagers. Later on Tuesday morning, hundreds of villagers gathered at the kiln and burnt the couple alive without even listening to Shama.

“She was screaming that she was unaware of what the papers were about, but no-one listened to her,” Bilqees said.

Abdul Shakoor, a male member of the Bilqees family, said the mob’s behaviour could not be justified and the treatment meted out to the young.couple was inhuman and brutal.

General Secretary of the All Pakistan Brick Kiln Association, Mehar Abdul Haq, told Dawn that the kiln owner had been nominated in case, although he was not present at the time of the incident. He demanded a fair inquiry into the matter. 

Meanwhile, members of the Christian community held protest demonstrations in Kot Radha Kishan on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, November 6th , 2014

Voiceless: The unending plight of female labourers

05/11/2014

Haroon Janjua

Parveen has spent nearly a decade stitching footballs in Roras village, Sialkot at only Rs. 75 per day.

The football industry, which does a yearly business of nearly 30 million, is being run by thousands of home based workers, primarily women.

The shockingly low wage scale is not limited to the football industry alone; women labourers have faced a setback in terms of both salary and employment opportunities in other industries as well.

Muneera Bibi has been working in Kahuta-Rawalpindi as a hawker, by selling utensils in villages or bartering them in exchange for raw materials such as rubber and metallic goods that can be recycled.

“I make Rs. 200 a day and at times nothing at all. When my items don't sell I often take off the basket from my head with only one thought; how will I feed my children?” 

Tahir Manzoor, Gender Focal Person and Deputy Director Labour, Department of Labour, Punjab, said that female 'Home-Based Workers' are not recognised in the labour laws, because of this no regulations and benefits apply to them.

“Their work is not organised and they don’t have any union to present their issue at the government level,” said Manzoor adding that, “Female vendors have no wage standard. The social welfare department needs to support them financially. They don’t get any assistance in case of sexual harassment either.”

Hurmat Bibi has spent her entire life as a labourer, but her experiences in the past were comparatively better than the working conditions now.

“In the past, it was much better; there was warmth, affection and sympathy in the society.” She expressed contentment and satisfaction during her time vending and said, "Now, to venture out for earning one’s livelihood is becoming difficult for our young vending women. They get abused, pestered and frequently manhandled and sadly this has become an attitude of the general public too.”

Apart from the attitude of the employees and society, women are often forced to work by their unemployed husbands. 

Zahida, 45, is a brick kiln labourer who works with a group of eight women and girls. Her husband, a drug addict, would often beat her. She asked him for a divorce and found employment in a brick kiln factory in Kasur and has been doing it for the last six years.

“My employer gives me Rs. 100 per day but he sometimes doesn't pay me at all. He provides food and shelter but there is no fixed pay,” said Zahida.

In major cities, there are colonies of slums and shanty towns that co-exist at the peripheries of affluent neighborhoods with their posh concrete houses presenting a stark image of class divide.

United Nations Development Programme estimates that nearly 35 per cent of the urban population in Pakistan exists in slums, and squatter settlements.

The living conditions in these squatter settlements speak appalling stories of deprivation, which do not conform to the most basic requirements for a healthy human existence.

According to United Nations Agency for Human Settlement (UN-HABITAT), the global slum population may grow to two billion by 2030 with increasing livelihood and labour issues, particularly for women.

The World Bank and UN-HABITAT have estimated that over 80 per cent of the new jobs in urban parts of the developing countries will likely be low-paying jobs in the informal and unorganized sectors given that no significant economic reforms are taken. If all factors remain same, a high growth in the informal sector will be accompanied by a rapid growth of slums.

In the absence of skills and little to no education, unemployment rates will continue to rise for slum dwellers, and particularly for the women. 

The close proximity to factories and industrial waste put slum dwellers in danger of developing respiratory diseases such as whooping and chronic cough. The treatment that is opted is usually self-medication with no consultation from doctors.

Nutritional deficiencies are also common which contribute to the high infant mortality rate.

Muneera Bibi, who is also a brick kin labourer spoke about her sick child, "My five-year-old son was malnourished since childhood, he now has polio. I can’t give him all of my time because of my work; I can neither earn money for his treatment or be on his side."