Policing failure : Despite laws women left to fend for themselves

Incidents of domestic violence, rape, and honour killings have not been curtailed

KARACHI:

Despite the sheer number of laws, government commissions, and oversight committees, the violence against women in Sindh continues unabated, which has put a question mark on the performance of law enforcement agencies. Like the remainder of the country, Pakistan’s second most populous province has nothing to boast about when it comes to protecting its women.

Resultantly, incidents of domestic violence, rape, and honor killings, no matter how gruesome are only capable of fetching headlines. For instance, as per data collected by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 69 women have been murdered under the pretext of honour killing, also referred to as karo kari, this year so far. Apart from honour killings, police reports obtained by the Express Tribune from sources privy to the matter, show that in Sindh around 238 women and girls, including minors, were subjected to instances of sexual violence from January to September of this year.

However, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Karachi, which works with rape victims, contests this data. “As per the medico-legal reports from three government hospitals, 280 women have allegedly been sexually assaulted in last nine months, in Karachi alone,” informed Sheraz Ahmed, Program Manager of the organisation. It is pertinent to mention that the Express Tribune made repeated requests to Sindh Police’s IT Department to provide data pertaining to violence against women so it could be corroborated against data compiled by various NGOs but did not hear back from them. Despite the lack of any official data, Ahmed believes that it is clear that Sindh’s law enforcement agencies have failed to implement laws designed to protect women. Ahmed based his opinion on the fact that sexual violence cases in Sindh only had a 3% conviction ratio.

“Medico-legal reports are tempered, police and community members pressurize the rape victims and their families to withdraw the case; and officials of the prosecution department are not interested in pursuing the case unless it is high profile,” he said, adding that lack of access to justice and uncertainly of getting a conviction also compel people to not pursue their cases. “The anti-rape law has fixed a four month period to finalize the trial of the cases, but it takes years to get justice for the victims,” Ahmed remarked. Anis Haroon, a Member of the National Human Rights Commission, Sindh, agrees. “The entire system has failed to address the plight of women,” she said. Haroon was of the view that statutory bodies like the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women were lying dormant due to a lack of interest by the government in addressing women’s issues like domestic violence and protection from harassment at the workplace. “Many laws have been passed for protection of women but their implementation is non-existent and no one has held the government accountable for lack of implementation,” Haroon opined. Iqbal Detho, a human rights activist, concurring with Harron suggested that there was a dire need to enhance the capacity of police to deal with the cases at the local level.

“There are standing committees of the Sindh Assembly to play the role of watchdog, but most of the committees are non-functional,” Detho regretted. When asked about her government turning a blind eye towards women, Shehla Raza, provincial Minister for Women Development, defended her government, stating that Sindh had set a precedent of making pro-women laws. “One can’t take action if there are no proper laws on an issue,” Raza said, adding that now they were laying down proper mechanisms at the district level like complaint cells and safe houses for women. “I know there is always need for improvement. We are trying to resolve issues that create problems in the implementation of laws,” the minister told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2022.