Crime against women in its gravest forms is continuing in different parts of Pakistan and Punjab has particluary witnessed frequent cases during last few days.
Though the first woman Chief Minister of the province Maryam Nawaz is taking prompt notices of such incidents, how this menace in the society of can be addressed is a real question that needs an immediate attention.
After a most heinous crime was committed against 22-year-old Maria of Toba Tek Singh few days back, another brutal incident happened on Saturday in the same district as a woman along with her five children was poisoned. In this incident all the five children including their 16-year sister passed away and have been buried after funeral at Gojra city of district Toba Tek Singh –Punjab. Police has stated that Asghar Ali used have rifts with her wife over the marriage of their daughter and over poor circumstances of the family.
Mother of the children already under treatment has recorded her statement to police that her husband Asghar Ali mixed poison in their tea which resultantly caused death of the children. Those have been passed away include 16-year-old Aqsa, Iqra, Sania, Madiha and their brother Ali Hassan. The police have arrested their father Asghar Ali and is continuing investigations in this regard.
In another incident a woman was also killed in Gujranwala on Saturday over rejecting marriage proposal for her daughter by the proposer. While a brutal incident took place at district Bahawalnagar in which a young girl’s face was burnt with acid.
These are the few cases which came to surface otherwise what more happens in this province in particular and in the country in general gets obvious by looking into the reports of the concerned. A non-government governmental organization (NGO) Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) in its report for the year 2023 has revealed that the number of cases of violence against women in Punjab was high in 2023. As many as 10,201 cases of violence and 6,624 rape cases were reported during 2023 in this province.
Importantly this report was compiled in light with the date provided by Punjab police department and found Lahore as a major city of violence against women with 1,464 cases and Faisalabad with 728 rape cases. Besides the report also highlighted approximately 28 cases of violence were reported every day in 2023.
Although the provincial government has declared Maria’s case as a high-profile case in which the girl was reportedly subjected to incest by her own father and brother and alter was strangled to death, but each in its sense is high profile. Each of the case of violence against women requires a logical end and responsible be punished. Pakistan’s image in the world in this regard is already a very bad and tarnished image, so something concrete is required to be done in this regard to make us a women friendly society.
Earlier it has been reported that in 2014, 153 acid attacks targeting 210 victims were in this province decreasing them to 69 in 2015, 73 in 2016, 39 in 2017 and so on, but still this crime exists in our society. as has happened today.
(Rana Kashif has authored this story)
