CM Shahbaz Sharif. PHOTO: APP
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of a woman setting herself on fire outside the CM House on Friday reportedly over a family dispute, Express News reported.
The woman was taken to Jinnah Hospital in Lahore for medical treatment and Shahbaz ordered that the best medical assistance should be provided to her. According to doctors, 30 to 40% of her body had burnt.
The woman was a resident of Shafiqabad and has four children including three daughters and a son. It was reported that the husband of the woman was unemployed.
The chief minister has also asked for a report on the incident.
Reportedly, the brothers of the victim's husband used to torture her husband and did not give them their rightful share of family property. Further, the police allegedly did not help them in the matter and instead took sides with the brothers.
COMMENTS (21)
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CM should discourage this.
@Imran: abject poverty comes from unjust actions of relative and unjust actions of society against its citizen.
@Muhammad Saim: its only illegal or unislamic if the venues of justice are freely available. Have you any idea how difficult is to hurt oneself?? The self righteous pompous attitudes like yours is the bane on this society.
Why don't they they ride Metro Bus and go watch Guinness world records being created, silly people, government is doing so much and they are committing suicides..one ride of metro bus a day keep hunger and poverty away..
why is it women in Pakistan has to take extreme step to get justice.Something is horribly wrong with society.
The CM's action is like treating a cancer with aspirin.
@Saim - your statement is really heartless..its easy to type such things on a computer in your comfy room when you are from a privileged background..you and i haven't tasted that level of desperation and agony in our lives hence it is easy for to say such mindless things.
Poverty is directly related to bad governance over many decades. Nawaz was still CM when Zia was around.
It is not the only problem in the country.The whole country is badly infested with multiple problems.No body, khadim-e-aala or others can solve them wholly.Basically our country is a poor country.It is the root cause..
the CM "took note" of the incident, rather than getting to the root cause of it. Irresponsible, almost callous.
@Muhammad Saim: You reflect the mindset of PMLN. Self immolation in Pakistan as a protest to poverty is not new. It started in Nawaz Sharif's last government, when he was laundering money out of the country, but squeezing the ordinary people under the weight of sanctions. To resolve the problem, his government ordered the news papers to stop printing the news of such incidents. Seems like you are suggesting precisely the same.
Question to be asked is if the husband was been tortured by his brothers over family property, why was it the wife who set herself in flames and not the husband?
There is no connection between the headline and the news. Reason seems to be abject poverty not the family feud.
I had the impression that everyone in Punjab had a decent job, plentiful food, and complete security. And it was only Sindh where people had issues.
This is story of majority of poor families. No income but half dozen kids to feed.
Why do women need to set themselves on fire to be noticed in our country? He needs to do something before every woman who was ever been wronged goes out and sets herself on fire, this is becoming sort of a trend. And an embarrassment.
Maybe now she'll get some justice.
There is no need for sympathies for such black mailer type men & women. Suicide is a crime and she should be dealt according to the law. rewarding such attempts only encourages others to take same short cuts.
CM Sharif need to be out patrolling the streets looking for flames. Women have no rights there. Dire circumstances. Reflected weekly. For someone to set themselves on fire,..means they lost all hope. At end of the rope, totally hopeless. Sheds light on 'Justice for the privileged only'....management style.