BY SYED ABDUL HADI BURNEY
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its recent report has revealed that at least 11 rape cases are reported daily with over 22,000 such incidents reported to police in the last six years (2015-21).
The report states that society gives undue advantage to perpetrators by blaming victims.
At least 16,153 cases have been filed by the women against their workplace harassment. Of these cases, 5,048 cases of work place harassment of women and violence against women were reported in the country during 2018 followed by 4,751 cases in 2019, 4,276 cases in 2020 and 2,078 cases in 2021, revealed a document of Ministry of human rights.
Likewise, 4,326 cases of rape were reported in the year 2018 followed by 4,377 rape cases in 2019, 3,887 cases in 2020 and 1,866 cases in 2021, it added.
Out of 4,326 reported rape cases in 2018, 3,883 were from Punjab, 249 from Sindh, 203 from KPK, 13 Balochistan and 26 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). And in 2019, out of 4,276 reported rape cases in 2018, the 3,314 were from Punjab, 277 from Sindh, 233 from KPK, 21 Balochistan, 40 Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and one each from GB and AJK. In 2021, 15,84 rape cases reported in Punjab, 153 in Sindh, 92 in KPK, and one in AJK.
A 18-year-old woman was given a job offer and then gang-raped on M-4 motorway in Gojra, in Punjab province.
The perpetrators of the crime invited the woman with evil intentions for a job in the city and when she arrived, the suspects gang-raped her in the car, dashed her on Faisalabad Interchange and fled from the scene, media reported.
Zainab Ansari rape victim was a seven-year-old. She was abducted in her hometown Kasur, Punjab while she was on her way to Quran recitation classes on 4 January 2018. Her dead body was found five days later at a garbage disposal site near Lahore on 9 January 2018; an autopsy report disclosed that she had been extensively raped and tortured before being strangled to death.
Her rapist and murderer, 24-year-old Imran Ali, was arrested and identified as a serial killer responsible for at least seven other rapes and murders of pre-pubescent girls in the region.
In 2005, a woman claimed to have been gang raped by four police officers for refusing to pay bribe so her husband would be released from prison. One officer was arrested and three have disappeared.
A 23-year-old woman in Faisalabad made public accusations against the police, saying her husband had been arrested for creating forged documents. She alleged that she was raped on the orders of the chief of police for his actions. The officer was suspended but not arrested.
In December 2017, a 25-year-old Woman was gang-raped by four dacoits during a robbery at her house in Multan.
In 8 February 2021 a boy was found dead after being sexually assaulted in Chowk Steel Bagh area after remaining missing for five days.
According to the police report, the 15-year-old son of Mustafa went missing after going to a poultry farm in Raukhanwala area for work. The relatives of the boy chanted slogans and protested against the police and demanded that the charge of sexual abuse be included in the case against the suspects and that justice be served.
An 18 year old was gang-raped on the motorway after being lured to travel in car by the rapist who posed as potential employers.
It is essential to point out that the right to be protected from rape and sexual assault is very much guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan and is one of the pillars on which construct of gender justice.
Constitution guarantees fundamental freedoms to women, in view of Article 25 (3), which enables the State to make specific provisions for women and children. The equality of women and children is firmly enshrined in Article 14, as well as, 25 (1) of the Constitution. The most important article with respect to women is Article 34 which provides that steps shall be taken to enforce full participation of women in all spheres of national life.
Chemical castration can be used as punishment for serial rapists under an anti-rape law that has been passed by Pakistan’s parliament. Life imprisonment and the death penalty are the current methods of punishment for rapists and pedophile offenders under Pakistan’s criminal Code.
In 2020, then Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed castration penalty should be introduced following the gang rape of a mother in front of her children on a major highway. The crime caused national outrage at the time and prompted widespread protests.
The writer is a student of Karachi University Criminology studies. He can be reached at ranpootahmed@gmail.com)
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