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Thursday March 28, 2024

Domestic Violence Bill for ICT still awaits vetting

IslamabadAs the country plans to commemorate International Women’s Day with the world community on March 8, the Domestic Violence Bill for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) awaits vetting at the Ministry of Interior since January 2014.The bill is aimed at institutionalising measures, which prevent and protect women, children and any vulnerable

By Myra Imran
March 06, 2015
Islamabad
As the country plans to commemorate International Women’s Day with the world community on March 8, the Domestic Violence Bill for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) awaits vetting at the Ministry of Interior since January 2014.
The bill is aimed at institutionalising measures, which prevent and protect women, children and any vulnerable person from domestic violence. In its statement of objectives and reasons, the bill mentions that the issue of domestic violence has been a source of public concern for a number of years.
The concept of domestic violence is traditionally defined as violence perpetrated by intimates against intimates. It occurs in relationships where conflict is the continuous result of power inequality between the partners and one partner is afraid of and harmed by the other. Domestic violence can occur in any relationship, victim can be a female or male.
The government bill on domestic violence was drafted by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights in consultation with National Commission on the Status of Women and was submitted to the Ministry of Interior last year.
Since 2005, several efforts have been made by the women parliamentarians to pass legislation on domestic violence but every time, the bills lapsed during the process.
Experts believe that reason was always the disinterest political leadership and resistance coming from certain male parliamentarians.
On the other hand, according to annual statistics on violence against women (VAW) released by Aurat Foundation show that the number and intensity of the incidents is increasing every day in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Overall, 140 cases of violence against women were reported in the ICT in 2014 with 13 cases of rape. Whereas, in a recent gender sensitisation workshop with doctors and medico legal officers, the participants share that they deal with more than 13 cases of rape every month.
As compared to increasing cases of violence, there is only one sanctioned medico-legal officer in Islamabad. The total number of medico legal in Pakistan is only 15 with 7 in Karachi, 1 in Peshawar and 6 in Hyderabad.
The sensitivity of the issues is evident from the fact that 6 women were kidnapped, 4 were raped, 3 committed suicide and 6 were murdered in Pakistan every day in the year 2014. In total, 10139 cases of violence against women were reported in the year 2014. Around 7548 incidents were reported in Punjab that topped the list while keeping the past record. 1447 cases were reported form Sindh followed by 736 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 190 incidents in Balochistan.
In case of Hindu and Christian Marriage Act, the legislation was submitted to the cabinet for quite a long time but failed to appear on the agenda. Realizing the importance and sensitivity of the issue, a special reference was prepared to draw the attention of the prime minister towards this situation. As a result, a special permission was obtained from the PM secretariat and bill was sent to the Parliamentary Affairs to introduce it to the house.
Advocates of women rights believe that same sensitivity is attached to the domestic violence legislation. “The provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan have already passed the legislation. It will be good if the federal government gives the gift of any good news on the ICT Domestic Violence Bill to the women of Pakistan on this International Women Day,” said Director Advocacy for Aurat Foundation Rabeea Hadi.