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PAKISTAN: The Ghotki police fail to act on the gang rape of a 19 year-old girl

July 11, 2006

URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

12 July 2006

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UA-230-2006: PAKISTAN: The Ghotki police fail to act on the gang rape of a 19 year-old girl

PAKISTAN: Gang rape; violence against women, misuse of power, collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a blind beggar’s 19-year-old daughter was gang raped by three influential men for several months. Upon knowing her pregnancy, they forcibly poisoned her and killed the three-month-old fetus. Meanwhile, the police refused to protect the victim and pressed charges against her family to force the victim to withdraw her complaints against the perpetrators. 

Miss. RP (the name is withheld to protect the victim's identity), the 19 year-old daughter of a blind beggar, was gang raped at gunpoint by three men about three to four months ago when she was harvesting alone on a corn farm in Goth Dur Mohammad Phawarh, Ghotki district, Sindh province, Pakistan. The three culprits named Saad Ullah (alias Soodho Phawrh), Usman Phawarh, and Abdul Karim Phawarh beat her as she cried for help. The fastened her mouth with a piece of cloth at gunpoint and all three took turns raping her. Furthermore, they threatened to kill her if the assault was reported.

Two days later, the perpetrators returned to her house knowing that most people would be away at work. They stripped her, forced her to dance, tortured her, and burned her with cigarettes before they tied her up to rape her again. Since the three men were influential landlords with strong connections and support from the local police force, they threatened that they would make sure her entire family got life sentences if she told anyone about the attack. Her fear silenced her as the rape continued daily until she was three-month pregnant. 

The victim's mother told her husband about the incident and they lodged a report to the Ghotki police and subsequently a case of rape was filed on 26 June 2006 against Saad Ullah, Usman Phowarh and Abdul Karim with the Ghotki police station. But the Ghotki police delayed their response in arresting the culprits and only arrested Saad Ullah and Usman but not Abdul Karim, as he allegedly had good connections with the police. The arrests of the two men were also made only after the intervention of local journalists.

After the local hospital confirmed her pregnancy, the culprits allegedly attempted to kill the victim and her fetus. On 3 July 2006, some armed men, two of which identified themselves as police officers, attacked the victim's entire family and forced poison down her throat. They threatened the family saying that if they went to the hospital, they would attack the family again. The victim was then hospitalized at Taulaqa hospital Ghotki some hours later and luckily survived with the help of Dr. Salma, but the 3 month-old fetus was dead. During her stay in the hospital, the Ghotki police allegedly forced the hospital to release her a week early from medical care. The victim's condition still remains serious.

A case of attack was registered against local gangsters namely Ghulam Nabi Aandal, Hazoor Bux Phawarh, Yaqoob Phawarh, Sohno Phawarh, Abdullah Phawarh and Mehboob Phawarh. But no one has yet been arrested. Meanwhile, in order to pressure the family to drop charges, the rapists simultaneously filed a petty case suit for fighting in the Sarhad police station against the victim's blind father Allah Rukhyo, her two brothers Abdul Haleem and Abdul Jabbar, as well as her uncles Basheer Ahmed, Ali Mohammad, Ghulam Nabi, and Abdul Wahab Phawarh.  Subsequently, three of the victim's family members have been arrested by the police.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Pakistan has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 3 March 1996 and as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan also has accordingly established domestic laws for the protection of women. However, the rights and protection of marginalized people such as the victim are often overlooked by the government.

Looking into domestic legislations relating to rape case, Pakistani law is punishing victims of rape as though they were criminals while the perpetrators go free. The Hudood Ordinances are a set of laws in Pakistan intended to make the criminal justice system conform to Islamic law. Hudood Ordinances, which are inspired by Islam, cover offences including Zina crimes (unlawful sexual intercourse including adultery and rape) and Qazf (wrongful accusation of Zina crimes). They do not differentiate rape from adultery. The maximum punishment for Zina crimes is death by stoning. Many women are imprisoned for years, convicted or awaiting trial for Zina crimes.

In particular, these laws place an almost impossible burden of proof on women and girls who are raped. Under Hudood rules, a woman must have four male Muslim witnesses present at her rape to prove her case. All four must have an unblemished police record and be of unsullied reputation for their words to be accepted. Short of this, the victim is liable to be accused of adultery and sentenced to time in jail or to death by stoning. Under the circumstances, if they report a rape to the police they are often charged with Zina crimes because they have in effect admitted to sexual intercourse outside of marriage and been unable to prove absence of consent. In such cases, the victims are more likely to be convicted than the perpetrators. Even though there are some provisions relating to rape in the Criminal Penal Code of Pakistan, those provisions are not practiced in actual circumstances. 

Meanwhile, many Hudood cases are pending before courts for several years. To settle this problem, the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan has ordered courts to settle cases filed under the Zina Offence provisions within three months. For example, it is estimated that there were 200,000 Hudood cases pending before the courts. According to the Federal Shariat Court, the Lahore Registry alone had about pending 1,400 cases. The effect is that the accused, most of them are women, are unjustly detained waiting trial.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Pakistan authorities listed below and urge them to order a proper and thorough investigation into this case. Please also urge them to ensure that the third culprit is arrested immediately and that they withdraw the cases against the victim's family that were filed at the Thana Sarhad police station. Please also urge them to inquire into the misuse of power and delayed response to the case by the Ghotki police.

Please also urge the government of Pakistan and the provincial government of Sindh to compensate the victim with monetary support, medical assistance and governmental protection.

To support this appeal, please click:

Suggested letter:

Dear ____________,

PAKISTAN: The Ghotki police fail to act on the gang rape of a 19 year-old girl

Name of the victim: Miss. RP (the name withheld to protect the victim's identity), aged 19, a daughter of Allah Rukhyo Phawarh, residing in Goth Dur Mohammad Phawarh, Ghotki district, Sindh province, Pakistan
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Saad Ullah alias Soodh Phawarh, the rapist, a landlord
2. Mr. Usman Phawarh, the rapist, a landlord
3. Mr. Abdul Karim Phawarh, the rapist, a landlord
4. Station House Officer (SHO) of Ghotki police station in Ghotki (for not arresting Abdul Karim and allegedly prevented the victim from receiving adequate medical treatment at hospital)
5. SHO of the Sarhad Thana Police Station in Ghotki
6. Mr. Mehboob Phowarh, the alleged attackers to the victim (for allegedly helping the culprits by pressing charges against the victim's family)
7. Mr. Abdullah Phawarh, alleged attacker of the victim, a local gangster
8. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Aandal, alleged attacker of the victim, a local gangster
9. Mr. Hazoor Bux Phawarh, alleged attacker of the victim, a local gangster
10. Mr. Yaqoob Phawarh, alleged attacker of the victim, a local gangster
11. Mr. Sohno Phawarh, alleged attacker of the victim, a local gangster
Period of the rape and attack: constantly raped from around March 2006, attacked on 3 July 2006
Place of the incident: the victim's house and nearby corn farm

I am writing to draw your attention toward the alleged gang rape of a 19 year-old girl, daughter of a blind beggar, by influential politicians of the Ghotki district in Sind Province and with the help of the local police’s inaction.

According to the information I have received, the victim was gang raped at gunpoint by three local influential figures named above at the corn farm in Goth Dur Mohammad Phawarh, Pakistan in around March 2006. After raping her, they threatened to kill her if the assault was reported. After the first instance of the rape, the perpetrators continued to visit the victim's house while her family went to work.  They then stripped her, forced her to dance, tortured her, and burned her with cigarettes before she was raped. Since the three men were influential landlords with strong connections and support from the local police force, they threatened that they would make her entire family receive life sentence if she told anyone about the rape. Her fear then silenced her as the rape continued daily until she was three-month pregnant. 

Upon learning of the incident, the victim's parents reported it to the Ghotki police and subsequently a case of rape was filed on 26 June 2006 against the three rapists mentioned above with the Ghotki police station. But the Ghotki police took a delayed response to arrest culprits and they later only arrested Saad Ullah and Usman but not Abdul Karim as he allegedly had good connections with the police.  The arrests of the two men were also made only after the intervention of local journalists.

Meanwhile, the culprits allegedly hired the persons mentioned above and attempted to kill the victim and her fetus on 3 July 2006. They attacked the victim's entire family and forced poison down her throat. The victim was hospitalized at Taulaqa hospital Ghotki and luckily survived; however, the 3-month-old fetus was dead. During her stay in the hospital, the Ghotki police allegedly forced the hospital to release the victim a week early from medical care. The victim's condition still remains serious. A case of attack was registered against the persons mentioned above but no one has yet been arrested.

Beside this, in order to pressure the family to drop the charges, the rapists simultaneously filed a petty case suit for fighting in the Sarhad police station against the victim's blind father Allah Rukhyo, her two brothers Abdul Haleem and Abdul Jabbar, as well as her uncles Basheer Ahmed, Ali Mohammad, Ghulam Nabi, and Abdul Wahab Phawarh.  Subsequently, three of the victim's family members have been arrested by the police.

To my knowledge, Pakistan is a member of the UN Human Rights Council and has also ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1996. However, the Pakistan government has not fulfilled its moral and international obligations to protect rape victims in the country. 

In particular, domestic laws are punishing victims of rape as though they were criminals while the perpetrators go free. Hudood Ordinances do not differentiate rape from adultery and place an almost impossible burden of proof on women and girls who are raped. Short of this, the victim is liable to be accused of adultery and sentenced to time in jail or to death by stoning. Under the circumstances, if they report a rape to the police they are often charged with Zina crimes because they have in effect admitted to sexual intercourse outside of marriage and been unable to prove absence of consent. In such cases, the victims are more likely to be convicted than the perpetrators. Even though there are some provisions relating to rape in the Criminal Penal Code of Pakistan, they are seldom used, let alone for the protection of marginalized women such as the victim here. Influential men in society, thus, blatantly violate and brutalize women for their own devious sexual pleasures with support from the local government. Such behavior is a shame for the Government of Pakistan, as well as the international community as a whole. It is shameful that the Pakistan government is seated on the UN Human Rights Council while its law enforcement officers help the culprits of the gang rape of an innocent 19 year-old girl and kill the fetus in her womb. This kind of hypocrisy is disrespectful to CEDAW, the UN committee, and women across the globe.

I therefore urge you to order a prompt and thorough investigation on the case of gang rape.
If the alleged perpetrators are found guilty, then proper punishment should be given, as well as victim compensation. They should be charged under the Criminal Penal Code rather than under the Hudood Ordinances. I also urge the Government of Pakistan to reform Hudood Ordinances in compliance with international standards so that rape victims can be protected.

I hope that intervention from your side will be forth coming.

Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President's Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
Email: (please see - http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)

2. Mr. Muhammad Wasi Zafar
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block
Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

3. Mr. Ishrat-ul- Ibad Khan
Governor
Government of Sindh
Governor House Karachi
PAKISTAN
Tel: + 92 21 920 1201
Email: governor@governorsindh.gov.pk

4. Dr. Arbab Abdul Rahim
Chief Minister of Sindh
Chief Minister House
Karachi
PAKISTAN
Fax: 92 21 9202000

5. Ms. Yakin Erturk
Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women
c/o Ms Vernonica Birga
Room 3-042
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9615
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN)


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-230-2006
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.