PESHAWAR: Representatives of civil society organisations on Thursday called for enactment and implementation of pro-women laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to curb child marriages and violence against women.

They were speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club. Those who spoke on the occasion included programme coordinator Blue Veins Qamar Naseem, coordinator of Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network Taimur Kamal, minority rights activist Radesh Singh Tony, Sana Ahmad advocate and child rights activist Imran Takar.

The activists called for effective measures to ensure implementation of many pro-women laws passed by the provincial legislature. They said that the incidents of violence against women were on the rise in KP and affecting the society. Child marriage tends to occur in the country’s most marginalised and vulnerable communities.

Say cases of violence against women rising

Mr Naseem said that the practice of marrying off a child had been banned in Punjab and Sindh through legislation, but it was failure of the incumbent government that these laws had so far not been enacted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that lack of political will among the legislators had made the passing of these bills so difficult.

Mr Kamal said that a lot needed to be done to safeguard the rights of women and children in the province. “Humans Rights Watch 2018 report had recorded 180 cases of domestic violence in the past year among which 94 resulted in brutal killings. Women’s lives are at a constant risk in our province,” he said. Mr Takar stated that most of the community at grassroots level was of the view that child marriages were frequent. He said that lobbying should be continued with the government to pass legislation in this regard. He added that children married at a young age faced gender-based violence.

Mr Tony stated that Pakistan had a record of forced marriages in the last year. Quoting the Human Rights Watch 2018 data, he said that about 1,000 cases had been reported of Hindu and Christian girls being married without their will. He said that the provincial government should have worked at a faster pace on notifying the district commission on status of women so that all gender-based violence cases could be reported through proper mechanism. He said that without the notification they held no powers to bring anyone to justice and develop a mechanism of accountability.

Referring to media reports, Sana Ahmad said that in the past two months 19 killings of women had occurred. She said that many cases of violence went unreported. She also stressed the need for devising a strategy for improving services to survivors.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018