Panchayat’s order
Letter to the editor
Newspaper reports say (May 7) that a village council in Punjab permitted a landlord to rape the sister and sister-in-law of a man accused of maintaining an illicit relationship with the landlord’s daughter?
The incident happened on April 30 in the village of Donga Naich after the landlord, Ghaffar, had complained to the council that his honour had been sullied when the son of a poor farmer began a relationship with his daughter.
On June 22, 2002, Mukhtiar Mai was raped in the presence of a large number of villagers in the Punjab village of Meerwala to atone for her younger brother’s alleged affair with a sister of one of the accused rapists. In the same case, her 11-year-old brother Abdul Shaqoor was also molested.
Although six people, out of 14 accused, that included all four rapists and two members of the tribal council which ordered the gang-rape, were condemned to death and fined Rs40,000 each by a terrorism court, the execution of the sentence has not been disseminated through various media to attract public notice.
The role of the media, the police and the judiciary in this and such other cases must be addressed to prevent future abuse against women in Pakistan.
LT-COL (retd) Syed Ahmed
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Letter to the editor
It is sickening to hear that two more girls have been raped on the orders of a local panchayat. Rather than expressing sadness and surprise, the prime minister and the president should visit the two girls and their families and ensure that the culprits are punished.
Sitting in an air conditioned room guarded by armed men and expressing views on this ordeal won’t do much. And this is not new; the president expressed the same views last time this happened. Nothing has changed. When will the government act and enforce laws so that this doesn’t happen again?
Fawwad Shafi
Karachi.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/9/2004
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