Women should think twice before escaping their homes in Hyderabad

Authorities unaware that one of the centres is operating at a police station.

HYDERABAD: Two sisters, Sitara and Saira Shah, escaped from their parents’ house in Larkana last week to seek protection in Hyderabad. Unfortunately for them, the women complaint centres they were looking for have shut down so they spent a dreadful night at a women’s police station only to be sent to Darul Amaan the next morning.

The two official complaint centres in Hyderabad - Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Centre for Women and Women Complaint Cell - were set up to provide temporary shelter, legal aid and counselling services in such cases but they have become dysfunctional due to a lack of financial support by the provincial government. Their offices, which were set up in rented premises, have also been sealed since the government failed to pay the rent, as well as their employees’ salaries for the past six to 12 months. “The government has left us to fend for ourselves,” complained the in-charge of the Benazir centre, Fozia Ashraf. “They are not paying salaries, allowances or the office rent.”

Ashraf shifted her office to G.O.R police station a few months ago after they were driven out of their rented office. Her team includes a legal aid advocate Sumera Khanzada, a counselling psychologist Sana Channa, a social worker Reshma Thebo, a cook, a driver, a gatekeeper and a maid. None of them have been paid their salaries.

The fate of the Women Complaint Cell, headed by Syeda Quratulain, is no different. She has not been paid her salary for six months now and she too was expelled from her rented office three months ago. “We have no place to work now and my job contract also expires on June 30,” she said.



Both these centres run as projects under the provincial women development ministry. The Benazir centre was launched as the Centre for Women in 2005 during Pervez Musharraf’s regime. It was later renamed in 2008 when the Pakistan Peoples Party assumed power. Their branches were opened in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Larkana and Jacobabad while the government had also announced to open more centres in each district. “Such facilities are crucial for the victims of social injustices and domestic violence,” said advocate Rafia Bangash, a women rights activist. “These vulnerable women need a place to stay, counselling and legal support for litigation.”

Centre at police station

Bangash finds it particularly appalling that one of these centres has reopened inside a male police station. “The image of the police is bad and the women are afraid of them,” she said. “Making them [women] stay at the police station is objectionable.”

Meanwhile, the authorities have yet to learn that the centre is operating from inside a police station. Both the deputy director of the women development department, Khalid Akbar, and Hyderabad SSP Saqib Ismail Memon admitted that they don’t know that the centre reopened at a police station. Ashraf explained she used her personal contacts to get her new office.

The acting provincial minister for women development, Anees Haroon, is also unaware about the status of the displaced and closed centres, even though they operate under the ministry. She acknowledged, however, that the department is marred by an acute shortage of funds. “I have recommended the new government seriously own these projects and regularise the jobs of employees working under them,” she said.

An activist of the Aurat Foundation, Amar Sindhu, felt disappointed with the PPP government. “The PPP is the party of Benazir Bhutto,” she pointed out. “It’s so unfortunate to see the PPP ignore such important services offered to susceptible women of this society.” Nevertheless, Sindhu was hopeful that this time around, the PPP will pay more attention to such issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2013.