07 March 2004	Sunday	15 Muharram 1425

HYDERABAD, March 6: Participants of a training workshop on human rights here on Saturday called for repeal of the Hudood Ordinance and other discriminatory laws.

They regretted that the Sindh Children Act, 1955, was not being enforced in letter and spirit.

They stressed the need for making collective efforts to ensure fundamental rights to the people, especially prisoners.

Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana was the chief guest at the concluding session of the workshop organized by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid.

The chief of the organization, Zia Awan, said fundamental rights of the people were being violated.

He said 93 per cent women were exonerated in Hudood cases, adding that such laws were not equally applied to men.

About section 294 of PPC, Mr Awan said it was being used against women.

He expressed concern over non-implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2002, in jails.

He asserted that the Sindh Children Act which was more effective than the Child Rights Conventions of the United Nations. He said the Act also called for two years punishment for women who carried infants while begging. Likewise, he added, mentally-retarded prisoners could not be kept in jail but it was an irony that there were no healthcare facilities for such patients.

He urged judiciary to play its role in implementing the JJSO, 2002, and ensure regular production of prisoners.

The participants also visited women prisoners and distributed brochures among them.

They noted that women were not being produced in courts regularly and women's prison hospital lacked medicines.

They urged the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court to ensure regular production of prisoners in courts.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Tiwana called for collective efforts on the part of the civil society to ensure fundamental rights to the people.

She said she had given three different schemes to the Karachi women's prison from her funds. She said women help centres should be set up at each union council level.

SUICIDE ATTEMPT: A 65-year-old man, Khawaja Fayaz, tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrist in a hotel room here the other day.

On being informed, the Fort police rushed to the hotel and, through a locked door, negotiated with the man who claimed to be a cancer patient and fed up with life.

Amir of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Sheikh Shaukat, had to be called over who persuaded the man to come out and gave him a railway ticket to visit his daughter in Rawalpindi.