Sahiwal ADC booked for torturing minor housemaid

Child housemaid says she was forcibly kept at home, repeatedly tortured

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Police have booked a senior district government official for allegedly torturing a child housemaid.

A 17-year-old minor TS* worked as a maid at the house of Sahiwal District Additional Deputy Commissioner Kanwal Bhutto.

The victim’s father, Shaukat Ali, told The Express Tribune that compelled by poverty, he had left his daughter at Bhutto’s house in Bani Gala around three months ago to work for a monthly salary of Rs10,000.

“Bhutto, her mother, and mother-in-law beat me on May 30. They would often beat over petty household issues,” the 17-year-old housemaid said.



The teenager noted that her family lives in a rented accommodation located just a kilometre from where her workplace. Despite that, she claimed, she was not allowed to either call or visit her family.

After she was beaten on May 30 for taking too long to boil milk for Bhutto’s daughter, she fled to her family.

The same day, her family took her to the Bani Gala police station to lodge a complaint against the ADC.

“There were torture marks on her body,” Ali said, pointing to the ready evidence of torture.

“Police delayed registration of the case, and registered an FIR five days later on June 5,” he complained.

The family maintains that not only was their child tortured, she was not paid for the three months she worked at the house.

“More than salaries, we demand that the perpetrators be held accountable for the torture and unfair treatment of our child,” the distraught father said.



A Bani Gala police officer said they were investigating the case but so far, no concrete progress had been made.

He added that as per the complainant’s claims, there were some bruises on the teenager’s body as a result of alleged torture. To prove this, the officer said that a medico-legal examination of the child had been conducted after which the suspect was booked for torture.

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Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2018.