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Latvian Court
extended detention of 10 Pakistanis till Dec 27
Monday December 15, 2003
ISLAMABAD, December 16 (Online): The Secretary
Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Latvia, J Reksna
has said that the Northern District Court of Riga City
has extended the detention of 10 Pakistani prisoners
arrested on Terrorism charges, till 27th of Dec.
The Secretary Ministry of Interior of Latvia, J Reksna
in his letter to Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International
has informed that the arrest of 10 Pakistanis were made
under Article 51 (1) paragraph 1, on 21st Nov, from
the Hotel Aurora, at street 5 in Riga City on Terrorism
charges.
"The ten citizens of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
Mohammad Shafique Marllowe, Chaudhry Muhammad Mansha,
Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqi, Mohammad Akmal Siddiqi, Muzaffar
Hayyat Khan, Ateeq-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Zahid, Imran
Malick, Ejaz Ahmed and Muhammad Akmal who entered Latvia
on 15th Nov 03, via State Boarder Guard, Riga Department
boarder checkpoint Airport, were arrested on 21st Nov
on suspicion of terrorism", he said.
According to Latvian Police they have detained 10 Pakistani
citizens, on November 21, fearing Pakistanis might have
been preparing a terrorist attack targeting the visiting
Israeli basketball team.
Meanwhile the Pakistan's human rights activist Ansar
Burney, Advocate has strongly condemned the arrest of
10 Pakistani players of Taekwando on Terrorism charges
and challenged their arrest in the District Court of
Riga.
"These Pakistanis were innocent and not involved
in any sort of crime or terrorism", Ansar Burney
informed the Court as well as to the Interior Ministry.
In his application in the Latvian Court, Ansar Burney,
Advocate has declared the arrest of 10 Pakistanis as
illegal and said; this arrest has defamed Pakistan and
its nationals and mount to be a discrimination between
the human beings on country and religion basis, so he
reserves the rights to challenge the same UN and other
International levels on defamation charges against Latvia.
Ansar Burney warned if Latvia government failed to
release 10 innocent Pakistanis soon he would have no
other option except to challenge this illegal arrest
and detention in the International Court of Justice,
United Nations Human Rights Commission and other International
platforms.
"These Pakistanis are innocent Taekwando players
who went to Riga to participate in international games
on an invitation from Latvia, with legal visas and completing
all other legal formalities, but were arrested from
their hotel on terrorism charges on a crime they had
never committed". Ansar Burney informed the Court.
"Even no weapons or other hazardous materials
were found during a search of their hotel." He
added.
"The crime as far as Ansar Burney Welfare Trust
International has come to know, on which these 10 Pakistani
innocent players were arrested in Latvia is; they had
return flight to Pakistan via Russia in a plane in which
Israeli team was suppose to travel". Ansar Burney
said.
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has collected,
these 10 Pakistani players who went to Latvia, on 15th
November stayed in a local hotel and took part in games.
They got valid visas at the Riga Air port till 23rd
November. When they made reservation for their return
to Pakistan for 22nd by Aeroflot via Russia, they were
arrested a day before their return on the fake terrorism
charges.
"What a laughing joke that these Pakistanis arrested
on a terrorism charge and the charge is that they were
traveling in a flight in which Israeli Jews were suppose
to travel". Burney added.
He said first of all no body knows who is traveling
on which flight and even if know; Ansar Burney asked;
'since how long is it become a crime for Pakistanis
or Muslims if they travel in such flights"?
Burney
off to Italy to help held Pakistanis
ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust International, Ansar Burney will leave for Italy
next week to appear in an Italian Court to seek the
release of 15 innocent Pakistani prisoners and to provide
them legal assistance.
Burney will stop over in London for three days on his
way to Italy. During his stay in London he will meet
the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Anti
Slavery Group and other NGO’s to discuss the current
human rights situation and problems of the Muslims,
specially Arabs and Pakistanis, says a press release.
The Italian Government arrested the 15 innocent Pakistanis
in August on alleged terrorism charges from a cargo
ship anchored at the southern Sicilian port of Gela.
Ansar Burney said, these 15 Pakistanis were innocent
and arrested in Italy only because of discrimination
against Muslims especially Pakistanis.
He asked the relatives of the prisoners to contact
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International at: 6 Hassan
Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi or phone (021) 2626274,
2623382, 2626155, 2623383 or Mobile 0300 8243459. —SANA
Pakistan
Cultural Group sends aid to Afghanistan
Somira Tariq CP Correspondent Riyadh, KSA
Dec. 2001 - Pakistan Cultural Group (PCG), a social
and community welfare Pakistani organization based in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has sent relief aid to Afghanistan
to assist war victims and needy people of Afghanistan,
said Tariq Soomroiq Soomro who is the member of PCG
Social Welfare Committee.
Shamshad Ali Siddiqui, PCG member has just returned
to Riyadh after handing over the relief aid to Ansar
Burney, the chairman of the Ansar Burney International
Welfare Trust (ABIWT) in Karachi.
According to Tariq PCG has sent this relief aid through
ABIET with the help of local office of the UN High commission
for refugees. He stated, due to security problems it
was very difficult for us to get the goods to needy.
We have thankful to UN Hight commission for their help
in the distribution of the goods.
PCG executive Committee members had contributed over
1,000,000 Rupees in Riyadh to send food and other items
to the war victims. ABIWT has arranged and dispatched
a convoy of three trucks carrying 200 tents, 40,000
liters of milk, 1,200 blankets and 10,000 Kg of Flour.
ABIWT volunteers will erect tents for homeless families
and will supervise the distribution of the other items
to the poor Afghanis in side the war effected areas
of Afghanistan.
Ansar Burney, in a message to PCG Secretary General
Abdul Hameed Abu Farooq , has expressed his appreciation
for this humanitarian gesture and thanked PCG Executive
Body who contributed generously to the purchase of these
relief goods.
1500
Pak prisoners expected to be released before Eid
Tuesday November 11, 2003
ISLAMABAD, November 12 (Online): Some fifteen
hundred (1500) more Pakistani prisoners are expected
to be released from Oman and back home before Eid-ul-Fitr,
according to Ansar Burney Welfare Trust.
They were smuggled to Muscat by human smugglers.
The 723 stranded Pakistanis jailed in Muscat and released
revealed that several 'Dead Bodies' of Innocent Pakistanis
are decaying on the mountains of Oman and some of them
were even eaten by the Cannibals.
These 723 Pakistanis smuggled to Muscat via Iran to
go to Dubai by the human smugglers, where they were
arrested and sent to prisons. They spent several months
in Jails in a miserable condition.
Hundreds of innocent Pakistanis are still stranded
or in prisons around the globe or on slave labour and
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International is trying it's
best to bring them back to Pakistan but are facing financial
problems so unable to bring all of them. Ansar Burney
Trust sources said.
According to Miss. Mehnaz Anwar, Advocate a spokeswomen
of the Trust the Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust International, Syed Fahad Burney, is leaving for
Muscat soon, for the early release of innocent Pakistanis
and in search of decaying dead bodies on boarder mountains
to bring back for funeral if any found.
She said in this connection the Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust International would be contacted at 6 Hassan Manzil,
Arambagh Road, Karachi, Pakistan.
There are still more fifteen hundred Pakistanis languishing
in the jails of Oman in very pathetic conditions.
 |
Battered
Lives
By Sanna Bucha and Aisha Aqeel
Victims of domestic violence are often abused twice
over – first by their husbands – and then
by the very people they turn to for help.
Zahid, 36, drags his wife Gulrukh into a room and with
the help of his two brothers ties her hands with rope
and starts to beat her. Then, pulling out a razor from
his pocket, he proceeds to cut off a piece of her nose.
The razor is blunt, so Gulrukh’s ordeal is prolonged.
Her screams and pleas for mercy are ignored. The job
done, Gulrukh is left bleeding, and soon faints with
the pain. Discovered by her daughter, 12, whose cries
alert the neighbours, Gulrukh’s life is saved
by timely medical intervention. Subsequently, the Ansar
Burney Trust is contacted and Zahid is apprehended.
He is sentenced to five years in jail and is awarded
a fine in excess of five lakh rupees to cover Gulrukh’s
medical costs. If he fails to pay, he will receive a
life sentence. Meanwhile, Gulrukh’s life has irrevocably
changed.
Zahid is no psychopath. He joins the ranks of thousands,
possibly millions of men who make wife abuse a routine
feature of their marital life. There can never be a
valid justification for such crimes. Often, no reasons
are offered either. In Gulrukh’s case, her error
was refusing to give her husband the money she earned
as a maid to buy the drugs he was addicted to.
There are other forms of abuse. A renowned industrialist
sends his wife to assorted business associates to gain
contracts in exchange for services provided. When she
refuses to comply, he beats her up. Usually she gives
in. Thirty years into the marriage, she continues to
live with her husband, and remains a stock member of
local high society. Shakeela belongs to a lower middle-class
family. She was physically abused by her husband for
five years, including being hit on the face on numerous
occasions and having her body kicked, which resulted
in two miscarriages. Cigarette burns were also common.
But it was when she was burned with a hot iron and had
acid poured over different parts of her body and face,
that she finally decided to leave her husband. Her parents
were not supportive, so Shakeela made her way to the
Ansar Burney Trust, which organised medical treatment
for her and helped her obtain a divorce from her husband.
The Trust also secured her a job to enable her to support
herself. Shakeela still bears the internal scars of
her physical torment, but she is a survivor: she saved
up enough and is now virtually scar-free. Many others
are not as resilient. And some pay with their lives.
These are just three cases of the rampant domestic
violence in Pakistan. According to Madadgar, a joint
venture between Lawyers for Human Rights & Legal
Aid (LHRLA) and UNICEF, during the last year the numbers
of reported cases of domestic violence against women
has dramatically risen. The quarterly breakup reveals
that during the first quarter of the last year, 426
cases of physical abuse against women were reported,
in the second quarter there were 753, in the third quarter
830, and in the last quarter 908. This does not necessarily
imply that such incidents are on the rise, but rather
that more women are speaking up. However, while that
is a welcome sign, the irony is that despite the fact
that numerous cases of domestic violence are brought
to public notice through the media, there has been no
sea change in the situation. A well-known sociologist
comments, “The torture of women is rooted in a
global culture which denies women equal rights with
men, and which legitimises the violent appropriation
of women’s bodies for individual gratification
or political needs.”
Domestic violence can take many forms – emotional,
verbal, sexual and physical abuse. It is a proven fact
that abuse usually escalates in scale – going
from emotional or verbal abuse to physical abuse. And
often victims are trapped in a vicious cycle whereby
they are abused twice over – by their spouses
and the very people they turn to for help. “We
have dealt with women who have not only been battered
by their husbands, but who have gone on to be abused
emotionally or sexually by policemen, judges and even
mullahs,” says attorney Ansar Burney, founder
and chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust .
In one such case, 30-something Parveen, who was a
regular victim of physical abuse, finally gathered the
courage to take action against her husband seven years
into her marriage. Her conservative middle-class family,
who believe divorce is taboo, told her she should remain
with her husband and made it clear that no help would
be forthcoming from them if she decided otherwise. However,
determined to find justice, she sought out a lawyer
who filed a case on her behalf. One evening the lawyer
called Parveen ostensibly to discuss the technicalities
of the case with her. However, at his chambers she was
gang-raped by him and his colleagues. Parveen felt she
had no choice but to return to her husband, and remains
his victim to date.
According to renowned human rights activist Zia Awan,
there is a victim of domestic violence in every second
house in Pakistan, and ironically, particularly in upper-class
society. “Basically our judicial system is not
child or woman-friendly,” says Zia Awan. “It
takes years to decide cases of domestic violence and
during this process the torture these women go through
is completely intolerable. One woman who filed a case
against her husband on charges of violence, while leaving
the court after a hearing, was mercilessly beaten on
the court’s staircase by her husband who was under
police custody at the time. When I approached the judge
and complained against the husband, I was completely
shocked by his response. He told me that as long as
she was his wife, he could treat her in whatever way
he chose, and added even the Quran gives the man this
right. A woman is humiliated, her honour is trampled
upon, but how can she retaliate if even those with judicial
powers harbour this kind of an attitude?”
A renowned clinical psychologist practicing in Karachi
believes that domestic violence stems in part from standard
perceptions about women. “Domestic violence is
basically caused by how a man looks at a woman. One
cannot imagine a woman beating up her husband or any
man for that matter due to the obvious difference in
size and strength between the genders. Men see women
as children who do not have the wherewithal to retaliate
even if abused. In our society particularly, neither
the child nor the woman are treated as equals. More
extreme cases, such as murder, burning or acid-pouring,
however, owe more to pathological or mental disorders,”
she says.
A recent survey conducted by the doctor’s students
on domestic violence produced some eye-opening results.
The students travelled to various parts of the city
and asked women and men – mostly from low income
groups – to fill out forms comprising questions
concerning domestic violence. One question asked whether
hitting or abusing women was justified. Amazingly, while
virtually all the males responded affirmatively, almost
80 per cent of the women respondents agreed with the
men. These women contended that they believe their husbands
have a right to beat them if they do not obey their
orders, clean the house, cook food or displease them
in some other way. Thus one may ask, do women perpetuate
their own victimisation?
Certainly conditioning has a great deal to do with
women’s self-image as inferiors in the male-female
equation. And often religion is erroneously used to
perpetuate this myth. “Women have no choice as
they aren’t aware of their rights or social status.
Girls need to be taught about their fundamental human
rights from a very early age, and how not to allow any
one to humiliate them. As an adult, it gets more difficult
to convince them. Schools could help in this respect
by holding discussions on the issue,” says an
analyst.
The obvious question is why so many women spend years
in torment, sometimes at the risk of their lives, rather
than breaking free. The fact is, particularly in societies
such as ours, this is easier said than done. Because
of lifelong conditioning and socio-cultural diktat,
women believe their fate is sealed once they are married.
‘Doli say kafan tak’ is a common local proverb.
And since parents are usually not very welcoming of
a daughter who has a failed marriage, and the authorities
are far from cooperative, women often have no recourse
but to remain tied to their hearths of hell.
What is more horrifying is that despite the numerous
cases of crimes against women that are reported in daily
publications, according to Zia Awan, 80 per cent of
such crimes go unreported, especially cases of domestic
violence.
“To fight against men who inflict such horrific
and painful forms of abuse on their wives, the law of
the country needs to be on their side,” says Ansar
Burney. Pakistani law, however, is inadequate in protecting
female victims of domestic violence and penalising perpetrators
of the crime. Not explicitly prohibited by a specific,
targeted, and distinct set of laws, most acts of domestic
violence are encompassed in the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance
of 1990-92, a body of Islamic criminal laws dealing
with murder, attempted murder, and the crime of causing
bodily “hurt” (both intentional and unintentional).
In the absence of explicit criminalisation of domestic
violence, police and judges have tended to treat it
as a non-justiciable, private or family matter or, at
best, an issue for civil, rather than criminal courts.
If a domestic violence case does come before a criminal
court, it may be punished either by qisas (retribution)
or diyat (compensation) for the benefit of the victim
or his/her legal heirs. In qisas and diyat crimes, the
victim or heir has the right to determine whether to
exact retribution or compensation or to pardon the accused.
If the victim or heir chooses to waive qisas, or qisas
is judicially held to be inapplicable, an offender is
subject to tazir or discretionary punishment in the
form of imprisonment. In these instances, judges not
only have the power to determine the extent of punishment,
but also to decide whether to punish the offender at
all. Commentators have noted that the qisas and diyat
laws have, in many respects, converted serious crimes,
including murder and aggravated assault, into crimes
against the individual rather than the state. One Pakistani
researcher has written, “By vesting the primary
right of forgiveness in the individual for such a serious
crime as murder, the state has exposed the most susceptible
sections of society to pressure from the powerful.”
The “privatisation” of crimes by the qisas
and diyat laws has particularly damaging consequences
in cases of intra-family violence, the majority of which
involve domestic abuse or spousal murder. As a result
of the law, not only are women victims of domestic violence
and their heirs susceptible to pressure and intimidation
to waive qisas, but the concept of monetary compensation
can be meaningless in a situation where payments flow
from one member of the nuclear family to another. Furthermore,
murder (Qatl-e-Amd) is not liable to qisas “when
any wali [heir] of the victim is a direct descendant,
no matter how young, of the offender.” Thus, cases
in which a woman has been murdered by her husband would
be exempted from qisas or capital punishment for the
murder, if the couple in question have children, since
in that case, a child or heir of the victim would also
be a direct descendant of the offender. Diyat in such
cases, entailing compensation flowing from a father
to his (motherless) children, would be a mockery.
Although courts can impose tazir punishment in a spousal
murder case, the maximum the court can award is 14 years’
imprisonment. Moreover, courts are directed to weigh
the decision to impose tazir punishment by “regarding
the facts and circumstances of the case,” which
grants them a large measure of discretion. In light
of the male bias of the courts with respect to domestic
violence, and the fact that punishment in such cases
of spousal murder has been left entirely to the discretion
of judges, this often translates into total impunity
for the perpetrators of even the most extreme form of
domestic violence. In the words of one commentator,
“Although it is still unclear how the law will
be applied in practice, it may be a means by which the
state abdicates its responsibility to control violence
in the most common type of intra-family murder –
the killing of a female member by the male head of the
family.”
A case recently handled by Zia Awan indicates how
the system works. Amina Bano was burnt to death on account
of her persistence to settle in Karachi. Amina met Dr.
Altaf Sarwar during their respective house jobs at Lyari
General Hospital in 1995, and they fell in love. Amina
was under the guardianship of her brother, Badar Jameel,
also a doctor, to whom Altaf Sarwar went with his proposal
of marriage with Amina. Initially Badar rejected the
proposal because Altaf was settled in Bahawalpur, and
he did not want his sister shifting to a city so far
away from him.
The proposal was, however, later accepted on the condition
that Dr. Altaf would settle permanently in Karachi.
On February 23, 2000, Altaf even signed an affidavit
stating he would shift permanently to Karachi within
four months. The two were married but after four months
lapsed, there were no indications that Altaf would make
good his word. Amina’s persistent entreaties to
her husband to honour his pledge resulted in him severely
torturing her, and eventually compelled her to leave
her husband’s house and make her way to Karachi.
An ostensibly humbled and profusely apologetic Altaf
arrived in Karachi and succeeded in taking his wife
back to Bahawalpur with him. However, soon it was back
to business, as Altaf again started to batter and torment
his wife. On January 27, 2001, he set her on fire. Amina
was shifted to Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi in critical
condition, where she breathed her last on February 9.
Law minister Shahida Jameel ordered an enquiry into
the case, and Altaf was caught. Allegedly, Dr Altaf
had many contacts with men in influential places and
was subsequently acquitted. He remains a free man.
Dowry, or the lack of it, often features as a cause
of domestic violence. A case in point: Aisha and Ataullah
were first cousins; he was an ostensibly devout Muslim.
Aisha was only 16 years old at the time of her marriage
and within a year became the mother of a daughter. However,
Ataullah began to abuse her, and soon thereafter threw
her out of the house, contending she could only return
if she brought along a substantial dowry. Shaheen Khatoon,
Aisha’s mother, arranged to cobble together a
few items in order to salvage her daughter’s marriage.
Sending her daughter home, she secured a written statement
from Ataullah that he would not torture Aisha again.
The promise wasn’t worth the paper it was written
on. On October 3, 2000, Ataullah burnt Aisha to death.
Shaheen Khatoon filed a case against Ataullah and sought
Zia Awan’s assistance to gain custody of her grand-daughter,
Hifza. She succeeded in the latter endeavour and Ataullah
was sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.
However, Ataullah appealed against the verdict and was
acquitted. He remains a free man. Shaheen Khatoon, meanwhile,
continues to be threatened and harassed by him and lives
in constant fear.
A psychiatrist comments, “Men beat up their
wives for numerous reasons: it can be because they are
frustrated with their own lives or careers, or have
been forceably married to a woman who is not of their
choice and thus release their frustration on their wives.
Also, narrow-minded men, who are often guilty of infidelity
themselves, suspect their wives of disloyalty, and beat
them. A woman is also often seen as the victim of her
spouse’s own complexes; if she is better looking
than her husband or he discovers she was involved with
or engaged to someone else before marriage, this can
engender real anger, and anger is momentary madness.
Men can lose control and this results in a major cause
of domestic violence.”
“A man can also be violent with his wife because
of a deep-rooted hatred for that woman due to certain
past experiences,” explains another psychiatrist.
She cites a case as an example: Sameera was Javed’s
cousin and he had a soft spot for her in his teenage
years. Sameera was, however, arrogant about her good
looks. When Javed proposed to her, she refused, and
got engaged to someone else instead. Later, her engagement
broke and she was forced to marry Javed.
Javed was brutal to her from the outset: from frequent
beatings to force feeding, Sameera was subjected to
various kinds of torture. In depression she gained a
huge amount of weight and lost the one asset she had
prided herself on: her looks. One of the most horrific
instances she recalled was of him placing her hands
under the legs of a charpai and then sitting on it,
fracturing her fingers. She has still not recovered
the full use of her hands.
Perhaps the most painful form of domestic abuse is
acid throwing. During eight months of last year in Karachi,
alone 206 women died of severe burns inflicted by acid
having been thrown on them by their spouses. There are
endless stories. Hajira bibi from Badin had acid poured
over her body and face by her husband, on account of
supposed ‘disloyalty.’ Hajira bibi had long
been abused by her spouse, but since her younger sister
is married to her husband’s younger brother she
felt she could not abandon her marriage, no matter what
the provocation, lest it endanger her sister’s
marriage. After she had acid thrown on her, Hajira bibi
was taken to hospital, and eventually, due to unprecedented
police involvement in the case, the Ansar Burney Trust
was drawn in. However, despite their intervention, Hajira
22, could not be prevailed upon to file a case against
her husband. Hajra survived, but is scarred for life.
Although the Burney Trust’s intervention enabled
her to leave her husband, her ordeal continues.
“Not all violent men appear like monsters with
horns,” says psychiatrist Reena Singh. “They’re
often likeable and charming.” Asad, 32, currently
a resident of the UK does not fit the stereotype of
an aggressor. He is a successful lawyer, makes enough
money to live a lavish life, entertains frequently,
is not a drinker or an addict and on the whole appears
a man of impeccable conduct. His relationship with his
wife Sehrish indicates a blissful union. But, their
life is far from perfect.
Sehrish has been married to Asad for seven years and
has been physically and mentally abused by him ever
since. She is a perfect example of how a wife-beater
can fool everyone, and why escaping him can be so difficult.
Asad never strikes Sehrish on the face, always on the
body where it does not show. “I never knew what
would provoke him; it could start with the fact that
I cooked something not of his choice, or maybe just
the fact that I had left the bathroom light on,”
recalls Sehrish.
At first she thought he had a hidden drinking problem
or was stressed due to overwork. But as time went by,
the beatings became more violent. Still Sehrish continued
in the marriage, trying hard to do nothing to aggravate
Asad. “I didn’t think of myself as a helpless
victim; I had become a survivor; a terrific strategist
capable of pre-empting his every move. I used to hide
all the sharp objects in my house and whenever I saw
him beginning to lose his temper, I would call the neighbours
over,” says Sehrish. Besides, she had become pregnant
in the second year of her marriage and hoped having
a child would ease the situation. Certainly the beatings
abated during her pregnancy, but after her son was born
the violence resumed. After some particularly gruesome
incidents, her neighbours intervened and summoned the
police. Sehrish, six months pregnant, had just miscarried
after being kicked by Asad in the stomach and locked
out of the house in the dead of night in a bitterly
cold winter. Asad managed to convince the police that
it was only a minor domestic brawl and they left. He
exhibited no sign of remorse. “He didn’t
see the loss of the baby as his problem. He said it
was enough that we had one child,” says Sehrish,
a UK born and bred citizen who says her family did not
want to know what she was enduring.
Things came to a head again a few months ago when
Asad held a knife to Sehrish’s neck, threatening
to kill her. Sehrish panicked and managed to escape
and call the police. But he got away by telling them
that Sehrish was on drugs and her behaviour could be
unpredictable. His statements were further corroborated
by his friends who testified that he was a perfect gentleman,
and Asad showed the police officials the slashes on
Sehrish’s forearms which he had himself inflicted
with a piece of broken glass, as proof of the fact that
Sehrish was neurotic and suicidal. With nowhere to go
and her spirit broken, Sehrish says “Leaving him
is not an option – he would take my child away.”
She remains in the marriage.
Sehrish is not an exception. Even in the ‘civilised’
developed world, cases like hers proliferate.
Domestic violence is prevalent globally and every
section of society is affected by the menace. According
to a welfare trust based in the UK, one in four women
has been hit by her partner and research shows that
on average, a victim is beaten 35 times before she seeks
police help. Two women are killed by their current or
formal partner every week in England and Wales.
Perhaps the only mitigating factor in the west is
that there is some degree of accountability for crimes
of this nature – even if not anywhere near what
it should be.
In Pakistan however, other than a few human rights
activists and welfare trusts working towards eliminating
the evil of domestic violence, there is little recourse
for victims. In the 21st century, women still continue
to live in a society where physical abuse is an accepted
concept.
Dr Ansar
Burney, Advocate, in Dubai (UAE) with Lieutenant General
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim
Renowned human and civil rights activist Dr Ansar Burney,
Advocate, in Dubai (UAE) with Lieutenant General Dhahi
Khalfan Tamim, Commandant General Dubai Police Force
in Dubai. During meeting they discussed human rights
issues.
Husband
burnt her wife by hot iron later putted acid on her
serious burn injuries in Pakistan:
By Sanna Bucha
KARACHI: The Vice Chairperson of the human and civil
rights organisation "Ansar Burney Welfare Trust
International" Mrs. Shaheen Burney has demanded
an immediate arrest of the husband who burnt his wife's
all body by hot iron later putted acid on her serious
burn injuries in Karachi.
According to details one Zia Ahmed, resident of Sadar,
Karachi, after quarrel with his wife Mst. Farah, burnt
her all body with hot iron later putted acid on her
burn wounds and locked her in a room, where she was
locked for five days in a very painful condition without
food or water.
After having come to know about the incident, Advocates
of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International rushed
the incident place and got her release from the custody
of her husband.
Her condition is very deteriorating, Doctors of the
Trust are trying to save the life of innocent Farah.
The incident occurred on Monday January 17, when Farah,
asked her husband for her legal rights.
However, after five days later when Mr. Ansar Burney,
Advocate came to know about the incident from some sources
he sent Volunteer Advocates at the incident place who
took badly injured Farah to Civil Hospital.
Shaheen Burney said that women are always neglected
in our society where they are living a life which is
worse than the animals in the male dominating society.
Mrs. Shaheen Burney renewed Ansar Burney Trust's pledge
to continue battle against honour killings (karo-kari)
in the name of so-called custom. She said that the need
of today is to equip women with the tool of education
so
they could effectively fight this evil, and that the
"Ansar Burney Welfare Trust" had placed honour
killings on its top priority.
She said that from October 1998 to September 1999,
595 innocent people were murdered in Sindh province
alone in the name of karo-kari (honour killings), out
of which 346 were females and 249 males. 50 per cent
of such women were killed by their husbands and 20 per
cent by their fathers and brothers, she added.
Shaheen Burney called for an immediate legislation
to curb this totally unIslamic custom of killings for
honour. A killer is a killer and punishable under law,
She said.
Shaheen Burney said that every year hundreds of innocent
women and girls are murdered in the same circumstances
but nobody hears their hues and cries, She demanded
an immediate stop of such killings of innocents and
requested the well to do people to come forward and
help "Ansar Burney Trust" to helping the helpless.
Letter
to Secretary State regarding the fate of Prisoners
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International
Thu, 24 Jan 2002 09:20:24 -0800
His Excellency Colin Powell
The Secretary State
State Department
Washington, D.C.
Your Excellency
In the very greater interest of justice and Human Rights
the “Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International”
would like to request for an early response from the
United States about published photographs, showing Taliban
and al Quaeda
prisoners on a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
kneeling and tightly manacled.
The prisoners, regardless of their technical status,
should be treated humanely and in accordance with customary
international laws. According to the reports during
their transportation from Pakistan and Afghanistan,
they were transported in a very horror way, in which
the prisoners were shackled and blindfolded for the
long flight to the camp in Cuba. Destined for 6-foot
by 8-foot enclosures with roofs and floors but only
chain-link walls.
Sunday newspapers in Britain carried photographs of
such prisoners in red overalls -- eyes and ears covered,
with their arms tightly shackled -- kneeling behind
wire fences.
We have a question; In this situation how America,
its alliances and other human rights champions defend
civilization ?
The treatment does seem to be way below the standards
one could expect in a civilized society in a new century
where every one was expecting peace, justice, supremacy
of law, humanity, human rights and freedom as given
in
the charter of the United Nations Human Rights Commission
and Geneva Convention.
Controversy over the conditions in which prisoners
from Pakistan and Afghanistan are being detained at
a US Base
in Cuba, and their legal status, is growing, putting
the United States in an embarrassing spot.
The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International is protesting
not just the detainees' conditions, but their lack of
protection under the Geneva Convention, which outlines
conditions of treatment for Prisoners of War (POWs).
Alleged ill-treatment of prisoners in transit and in
Guantanamo Camp, including reports that they were hooded,
shackled, and sedated
during transfer is painful for the organization believes
on Humanity and Human Rights.
Degrading treatment of prisoners is a flagrant violation
of international law which cannot be justified under
any circumstances.
The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust is very concerned about
allegations over the treatment of the prisoners. It
is important at a time of difficulty that human rights
and international humanitarian standards be purely upheld
and
observed.
The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust believes that the detainees
are being held in violation of even American Constitution,
Charter of the United Nations Human Rights Commission
and Geneva convention.
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International calls on the
United States to end legal limbo of Guantánamo
prisoners.
The America should ensure respect for the Human Rights
of all people who have been or may be transferred from
Afghanistan and Pakistan to a US military base in Guantánamo
Bay in Cuba.
The US is placing these people in a legal limbo. Allegedly
they deny that they are Prisoners of War (POWs), while
at the same time failing to provide them with the most
basic protections of any person deprived of their liberty.
The US has obligations under International law to ensure
respect for the Human Rights of all persons in their
custody
including the duty to treat them Humanely and ensure
that they have recourse to fair proceedings, regardless
of the
nature of the crimes they are suspected of having committed.
If there is any dispute about their status of ‘Prisoners
of War’ (POWs), the US must allow a "competent
tribunal" comprising on representatives from the
international Human and civil Rights
groups, International Bar Associations and also representatives
from the countries believes on Peace, Justice, Humanity
and Human Rights to decide their fate, as required by
Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention.
Any detainee who is suspected of a crime, whether or
not they are POWs, must be charged with a criminal offense
and tried fairly or released. Denying rights of Prisoners
Of War, protected by the Geneva Conventions for a fair
trial is a war crime.
We request access to the prisoners, and expressed concern
over their ambiguous legal standing. They should be
treated as POWs (Prisoners of War) until a proper procedure,
on an individual basis, can determine their status.
The housing provided at Guantanamo -- small cells with
chain link fencing for walls, concrete floors and wooden
roofs is against the charter of the United Nations Human
Rights Commission. Housing conditions, in cages partly
exposed to the elements, is also contrary to the Geneva
Convention. We have great concern regarding their treatment
in Cuba. There are also some allegation that beards
moustaches and hairs of these prisoners had been cut
down before taking them to Cuba.
Under the circumstances the ”Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust International” would like to request, Your
Excellency, to accord permission to the delegation of
the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust to visit detention camp
in Cuba to meet these prisoners for ascertaining factual
position as well as to know the truth and what facilities
are being provided to
these prisoners?
Looking forward with best wishes and regards
Yours in Respect
ANSAR BURNEY, Advocate
Chairman
Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International
(Human and Civil Rights Organisation)
6 Hassan Manzil,
Arambagh Road,
Karachi,
Pakistan.
Phone: + 92 21 2623382, 2623383, 2626155, 2627155
Mobile: + 92 300 8243459
Fax: + 92 21 2623384
Website: http://www.ansarburney.org
E-mail: ansarburney@hotmail.com
Asian
Human Rights Commission - Human Rights SOLIDARITY
PAKISTAN: 'No Sympathy for Criminals But Every Person
Should Be Equal Before Law'
on 2001-08-21
Human and civil rights activist and chairman of "Ansar
Burney Welfare Trust International" Ansar Burney
says he has no sympathy for criminals but every person
should be equal before law without any discrimination.
"Criminals should be brought to justice; but to
kill a murderer is a crime itself in the eyes of the
law, and we will never allow the government to extra-judicially
kill anybody it wants," Burney told a public meeting
in London recently.
A Pakistani advocate, Burney said it was strange that
if a person killed someone, that person was called a
murderer, but if the police extra-judicially (on the
government's wishes) killed someone, they became heros
and got promotions and prizes on their so-called achievements.
This, Burney said, is very wrong because a murderer
is a murderer regardless of him/her being in uniform.
"As a lover of humanity I do not want to see blood
shed, blood revolution or civil war in my mother country.
So I want to stop this by stopping the cause, I am struggling
for it. And in this battle we need the support from
the human and country loving people," the activist
said.
He noted that if a person was killed in police custody
or during judicial remand the police officials responsible
should be dealt with according to law.
In Pakistan, those persons who come under the umbrella
of the government are beyond the law. They are allowed
to do whatever they like, but they do not like to accept
others even when others are living within the framework
of law, Burney said.
Nobody has sympathy for murderers, rapists, terrorists,
criminals and other devils of society who should be
severely punished. Burney said however, "justice
should be done in a fair and open trial, and we are
ready to support the justice system." "We
know that without giving punishment to the criminals
and terrorists you can't do justice to the innocents,"
he added.
"I am on the hit list of terrorist groups in Pakistan
but I am not afraid. My life is not in their hands but
in God's, who is the sole owner of my every breath,"
said Burney who refuses any police protection offered
by the government.
"The suffering people of Pakistan who face danger
every day are those who need this protection, and not
me. My life is the property of my nation, and it shall
be a great honour for me if my fatherland, Pakistan,
will accept my blood in a way to serving the crying
and suffering humanity.
"I have the prayers of millions of innocents,
which are more powerful than any terrorist group. When
I have the protection of the people's prayers from all
over the globe, then nobody can scare me," Burney
said.
Terror
case families sue Macedonia
AP in Lahore
Monday May 3, 2004
Relatives of six Pakistani immigrants who were
framed as terrorists and executed by Macedonian police
are to sue for damages, lawyers said yesterday.
The group of illegal migrants were lured to Macedonia
two years ago, driven to a remote spot and gunned down
by the security forces.
They were then paraded as terrorists to enable the
country to "prove" its credentials as a frontline
US ally, Macedonian officials have acknowledged.
Ansar Burney, a lawyer and head of the Ansar Burney
Welfare Trust International, a civil rights group which
has campaigned on behalf of the victims' families, said
he was preparing to file a suit in the international
court of justice in The Hague, seeking $2m (£1,125,000)
in damages for each of the six families.
"We will sue the government for $12m," he
said. "They were just economic migrants passing
through Macedonia illegally to reach some European country
to earn money for their poor families."
A seventh man, an Indian, was also killed in the incident
in March 2002.
Macedonian police have accused former interior minister
Ljube Boskovski of ordering the executions and have
implicated three associates as well as a businessman
and two special police commandos.
If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment.
The Pakistani government praised Macedonia for revealing
the "diabolical plot" and starting legal action.
"This crime is even more... heinous because these
murders were pre-planned and were committed to spruce
up Macedonia's image as an ally in the war against terrorism,"
foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan, said.
The mother of one ofthe victims, Umar Farooq, said
yesterday her son had left his home village in eastern
Pakistan for Europe to seek work. Razia Bibi said the
22-year-old had nothing to do with terrorism. "I
sold my jewellery, borrowed money from relatives and
added them to my life savings to send my son abroad."
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