Ranipur tragedy echoes at Senate panel meeting

HR committee urges provinces to enact legislation for prevention of domestic abuse of children

ISLAMABAD:

The human rights panel of the upper house of parliament has urged all provinces to enact legislation to prevent domestic abuse of children and to ensure that minor victims of such abuse receive justice.

Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights which met at Parliament House on Thursday was discussing the heinous incident of alleged torture, sexual abuse and murder of a 9-year-old housemaid, Fatima Phurro, at Ranipur area of Sindh.

Briefing the committee chaired by Senator Walid Iqbal, secretary human rights said the incident occurred on August 16 and the accused, including owner of the haveli where Fatima worked, were arrested on the same day.

The secretary highlighted lacunas in the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017 and said there is a need to amend the piece of legislation as it lacks provisions for the prevention of child labour.

“An inspection mechanism should also be put in place for effective monitoring of child domestic abuse. There is also a dire need for uniformity in the definition of child all across the country,” he said.

Some members of the committee pointed to the rumors about alleged tampering with the DNA samples in the Ranipur case.The officials attending the meeting refuted the allegations.

Read 20-year-old girl 'missing' from Pir’s mansion in Ranipur

They said the DNA samples of the victim were first sent to Jamshoro and Karachi but due to nonavailability of required technology and sensitivity of the incident, the samples were later sent to Lahore.

The committee lamented that the Sindh Police officials showed inefficiency and were delayed in sending the DNA reports. Senator Iqbal said tampering of evidence was the major cause why 78% accused in criminal cases ultimately got acquitted.

National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) Chairman Ayesha Raza Farooq informed the panel that a letter was written to the Sindh Child Protection Authority urging it to ascertain whether the rumors about more children being held captive at the haveli of the Ranipur case accused were true. “However, the authority has failed to respond,” she said.

Sindh Social Welfare Secretary told the panel that around eight young girls were rescued from the place. “Rs1 million have also been offered to the family of Fatima as compensation,” he said.

The committee also raised concern about the "illegal arrest" of Pastor Victor and Ghazala at Jaranwala, where desecration of the Holy Quran had sparked communal rights last month.

Faisalabad’s regional police officer (RPO) told the committee that Pastor Victor and Ghazala, residents of Karachi, had come to Jaranwala to support their community after the riots. He said the two individual allegedly resisted the arrest of Alizar, who was wanted in the blasphemy case.

The committee directed the RPO to submit an inquiry report into the arrest to the committee. The Senate body also discussed the arrest of human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari from Islamabad last month.

Senator Quratul Ain Marri raised questions about the manner in which the lawyer was arrested and remarked that the police used excessive force. An official of the Islamabad Police, however, claimed that police had to use force as the accused and refused to cooperate.