Law to curb violence against women in the offing: Nilofar
ISLAMABAD, April 13 ,2005: Adviser to Prime Minister on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar has said her ministry is bringing a new legislation on violence against women in the National Assembly.
Addressing participants of a seminar here on Tuesday, she said there was also a dire need to have a new legislation to protect working women because they also had to face tremendous challenges in the working fields.
There has never been any proper and effective legislation to combat domestic violence against women in the country’s history, she said. In the recent past the ministry proposed the draft for amendments to the Family Courts Act, 1964 in its section 5, she added.
Nilofar reiterated the amendment was yet in line with the proposal of the Pakistan Law Commission that gives exclusive jurisdiction to the Family Courts to try cases where victims and perpetrators of the act are spouses.
During the last 10 years, 12,455 cases of domestic violence have been registered, she said, adding that alarming figures of mental and physical violence still went unnoticed across the country.
She said the ministry intended to enact specific legislation on domestic violence by clearly spelling out cruelty as criminal offence, issuance of immediate and clear directives to police to register, investigate and prosecute all cases of domestic violence, to establish burn units in hospitals and to expand and improve existing facilities, she added.
The adviser condemned the brutal attitude of police with the students of OPF Girls College and said there was a dire need to change the attitude of police along with forming a new legislation.
PML’s MNA Mehnaz Rafi said the existing types of domestic violence covered psychological and mental abuse, which were against the dignity of women and humanity.
Source: The News
Date:4/13/2005
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