Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of Chief Minister House to protest against rising incidents of abuse and violence against female students in educational institutions of Sindh.
The protest, led by Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, was staged after refusal of speaker Sindh Assembly to table a joint resolution in the house by joint opposition on the issue.
The protesting PTI lawmakers also displayed an open letter written to Chief Minister Sindh by joint opposition on the wall of CM house in which immediate action was demanded against perpetrators of acts of violence, harassment and murder of female students in educational institutes of the province and exemplary punishment for them.
The opposition parties through the letter also demanded stringent action against negligent officers of Police, Health, Prosecution and other relevant departments of Sindh government and to devise a comprehensive mechanism for preventing occurrence of such crimes in educational institutions.
It would also help provide immediate remedy so that honour and lives of our daughters could be protected and a safe and secure future could be guaranteed to them.
The Leader of the opposition speaking on the occasion said members of joint opposition in Sindh, wanted to take up the issue on floor of the Sindh Assembly during its session since Friday. “We also submitted a resolution in this regard in the assembly secretariat but we were not allowed to speak on the matters of grave concern,” he said CM’s silence on the the issue was tantamount to patronage of those responsible. Haleem said cases of harassment and sexual violence against daughters of Sindh were surfacing from different cities of Sindh particularly in educational institutions including the barbaric and heinous incident of Naukot where two young girls were abducted and molested by more than 20 people while alleging that local police on political pressure tried to weaken the case. Another deplorable incident was reported at Peoples Medical University where Perveen Rind was harassed by a senior officer of the university and she protested bare footed for justice, Haleem Adil Sheikh said.
He added that Bakhtawar Soomro a student of IBA University Sukkur was another victim of harassment by university administration who was facing hardships in court while one Sujjawal’s Almas Bhan had to abandon her study in Sindh University when free people tried to abduct her.
The letter also recalled the cases of Tania Khaskheli a tenth grade student of Jhangara who was shot dead by a son of local landlord, and an inhuman incident occurred in village Ghulamullah Chandio of district Thatta where corpse of 14 year old girl was exhumed and desecrated.
“Moreover, dead body of Naila Rind found from a girls hostel of Sindh University while killing of Namarta Kumari- a student of dental college in Larkana, and Nousheen Shah- student of Chandka Medical College- were presented as cases of suicide,” the open letter reads. It added that a DNA report by LUMHS laboratory recently revealed a lamentable link between cases of Namarta and Nousheen as same DNA specimen of a male were found on cloths of both the murdered students. Sheikh noted that such distressing incidents caused widespread fear and sense of insecurity and a considerable number of girls resorted to abandon their education and constrained themselves to homes. National Assembly of Pakistan has passed a resolution moved by federal government to hang culprits of sexual assault in public but Pakistan Peoples Party members voted against it, he said.
The letter stressed upon Murad Ali Shah that being Leader of the House and Chief Minister Sindh it was among his topmost responsibilities to immediately address the cases of abuse of female students in educational institutions of Sindh and ensure safety and security of female students.
“If you still remain silent on these matters, we will be rightful to presume that you are equally complicit in these crimes”, it added. PTI Parliamentary Leader Khurram Sher Zaman, Members of Sindh Assembly, Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Ahmed Afridi, Raja Azhar, Rabistan Khan, Jamal Siddiqui, Shehzad Qureshi, Shahnawaz Jadoon, Adeel Ahmed, Muhammad Ali GG, Adiba Hassan and others participated in the protest. Khurram Sherzaman while speaking on the occasion said PTI chairman PM Imran Khan had taught the party workers to stand with oppressed people.
