‘Lahore has not a single woman SHO’

The News

A seminar was organised by an organisation in connection with the International Women Day on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Rabbiya Bajwa, a women’s rights activist and a lawyer by profession, said despite having a legal system to protect rights of people, the absence of mechanism had resulted into the state’s failure to provide people with their basic rights, especially women. She termed the acid attack as terrorism against women. She also expressed concern over the lack of representation of, ‘actual women’s concerns’, in the parliament. Most of the women in the parliament do not belong to the class that actually suffers the most in our society’, she said.

Dr. Samia Amjad, MNA, demanded that the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2012 immediately be introduced and said that it was necessary to ensure that the act be implemented not just in the capital city of Islamabad but also include the entire country, especially Punjab. Dr. Amjad, who is also a Member of the Punjab Assembly Health Committee, said despite just 17% women representation in the national assembly, women parliamentarians had been successful in tabling and passing resolutions for upholding the rights of women. ‘Out of more than 80 police stations in Lahore, there is not a single one which has a woman SHO’, said MNA Sajida Mir while lamenting that the Punjab government had failed to ensure proper implementation of laws.

Justice Nasira Iqbal, a retired judge of the Lahore High Court and an activist, said it was unfortunate that the domestic violence bill had so far not been presented in the Punjab Assembly. She explained that it was necessary to add the ‘vulnerable groups’ during the drafting of the bill to ensure the protection of any victim of domestic violence, irrespective of the gender. Condemning the recent case in which two women at a polling station were slapped by Pakistan People’s Party’s Waheeda Shah, Justice Iqbal said violence by anyone should not be tolerated.

Director of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I. A. Rehman said it was necessary to induct women into the Election Commission of Pakistan and it was of utmost importance to have women representation in the ECP to understand the perspective of women’. Rehman said that women parliamentarians worked across the party lines when working for a cause, adding that it was essential that ‘equal pay for equal rights’ and the right to marry of one’s choice should be made fundamental rights of every citizen.