Untold stories from the cell

KARACHI: There is a picture besides Jabeen’s makeshift bed, a framed photograph of her with her two children. Hundreds of other such frames decorate the drab cells in the Women’s Jail, Karachi.

To mark the International Anti-Torture Day, the provincial minister for human rights, Nadia Gabol, visited the juvenile and women’s jails to see the conditions of the prisoners.

While these jails appear to be in relatively good shape, the same cannot be said for the way in which the female prisoners’ cases are dealt.

Farhat, who was convicted for attempted murder, has been in jail for seven years. Even though she has a lawyer, all her trips to the courts in these years seem in vain as there has been no progress in her case. Several other inmates complained of similar cases pending in courts for years.

Another woman, Yasmeen Ahmad, who was serving a 10-year sentence in jail for carrying an illegal passport, pleaded innocence. According to her, the FIA had implicated her in a false case.

Meanwhile, Asma Nawab, who has been sentenced to death by hanging, also maintains that she is innocent. She was jailed on charges of killing her parents and a younger brother with the help of other accomplices who included her boyfriend.

“I did not do anything, some other people killed my family in front of me,” she reiterated.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Sumera, the senior women’s medical officer, said that while she usually looks after all the medical problems of the female patients, they need to be taken to a hospital in some cases. This, however, is a lengthy procedure as they need a special guard to accompany them.

Many of the prisoners develop mental disorders due to prolonged prison terms and many of them have already gone through traumatic experiences, said Dr Sumera.

“Last week a 16-year-old prisoner, who had been raped, was convicted for attempted murder and attempted suicide since she was nine months pregnant at that time.”

The women’s jail’s assistant superintendent officer said that the process was difficult because many inmates feigned sickness and were simply plotting to escape. “Some time back a prisoner’s attendant brought her red chilli powder so that she could escape [by throwing it in the guard’s eyes] but she was caught, that’s why we have to be on our toes and not give in to their every request,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the juvenile prison, Waseem, 16, was convicted for carrying drugs. “I just had three rods of charas with me,” he told.

Dr Saleem Azam, who has been working to help drug addicts in Sindh since 1982, said that one flaw of the 1997 Act of Control Of Narcotics Substances is that it does not differentiate between a drug addict and a drug dealer. “This is unfair for the addicts, who need the government’s help,” he said. Gabol said that while she has been given the charge of a very important ministry, she has no funds to help them. “The budget was announced but there was no mention of any fund for human rights,” said Gabol, adding that she had been unable to attend the budget session because she was ill.

Victims of torture in Sindh

A resident of Sukkur, Hanifa, was tortured by her husband for 22 years before she decided to file for divorce.

“My husband used to torture me severely and all I hope now is that no one goes through what I have endured,” said Hanifa. Besides working for an NGO, Hanifa now looks after her two children.

A similar case of torture occurred in Bagh Hayat Ali Shah in Sukkur, where two sisters were subjected to torture because they were slow in preparing food.

The incharge of a women’s complaint centre, Safia Baloch, hopes that through their counselling men will understand that women are not their property and the trend is reversed.

“Your sisters and daughters are your honour and if you torture them, they will run away to Darul Amans,” she believed.

Every year, several NGOs organise seminars and use thousands of rupees in an effort to create awareness, yet women continue to feel insecure.

“It is easier to fight women’s cases and find justice for them because the law gives them protection,” a senior advocate, Naseem Dareshani, was apprehensive, “But is our society giving them enough permission to forward their case and defend themselves in court?”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2010.