KARACHI:Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Thursday said unfortunately incidents of violence against women were on rise which was the matter of grave concern.
He stated this while addressing as a chief guest at the launching ceremony of the National Media Fellowship on violence against women and child marriage organized by the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) here.
The governor said recently PTI Leader Laila Parveen was assaulted within the premises of court by group of men and that too in presence of a judge. “If our courts are not safe for our mothers and sisters, we must think where are heading”, he said.
Imran Ismail said he had telephoned the Chief Justice Sindh High Court and informed him about his concerns over the incident.
The chief justice also expressed his concerns and assured taking action against the involved people. “Being the Governor of the province, not only my responsibility is to take action against such elements but to also prevent these kinds of incidents in the future,” he added.
He recalled his visit to Sindh Prisons and informed the audience that the condition of prisons were much better for which he appreciated the efforts of Inspector General of Prisons, Sindh.
The governor advised the Chairperson NCSW Nilofar Bakhtiyar to visit female prisons and to coordinate with Inspector General of Prisons, Sindh and make efforts for the improvement of female wards of prisons where needed.
He also asked the IG Prisons, who was also present on the occasion, to compile a list of female and juvenile inmates who had completed their punishments but were still in jails because of non-payment of minor financial penalties and share the list with Chairperson NCSW.
He said the financial penalties of all such inmates would be paid so that they could be released of the prisons.
Imran Ismail also drew the attention of participants of fellowship towards the issue of women’s share in assets and properties. Majority of men try not to give a share of the inheritance to their sisters and to give it to their children.
The government had done legislation on the issue and was making efforts to ensure that women also get their due share in the inheritances, he added.
The governor said it was unfortunate that the government had to bring legislation to ensure strict punishments to culprits involved in molestations. He urged upon to reach out to the victims of gender based violence.
Earlier, in her welcome address, Chairperson NCSW Nilofar Bakhtiar said the violence against women was increasing rapidly unfortunately across the world. It was a crime not being reported, not being tried in courts and the world was silence on this. She said “Our only demand is please treat us like human being”.
She informed that despite various legislations there were several issues in implementation of these laws.
There was a need to sensitize the law enforcement agencies and other institutions regarding the legislations about women.
Nilofar said we needed to come out of these difficulties with unity and following the teachings of our religion.
Lead trainer of the fellowship Kamal Siddiqi said that violence against women and gender based violence was being reported wrongly in the mainstream media. Inappropriate choice of visuals and words were cause of concern.
He said there was a common misconception that media was deliberately reporting such issues with negativities however on the contrary it was due to lack of training of journalists reporting on the issue.
Kamal Siddiqi said the fellowship aimed at to train the selected journalists from across the country how to correctly report gender based violence issues and other such issues.
As many as 35 journalists from across the country including the journalists from AJK and GB have been selected for the national fellowship. The journalists from electronic, print, social media and documentary makers have been selected.