Canadian woman pardons alleged harassers
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ISLAMABAD: Two young men were on Thursday arrested on the complaint of a Canadian national for allegedly harassing her. However, they were released after a few hours as the complainant pardoned them.
Assma Galuta, a humanitarian worker for refugees in different parts of the world and a travel blogger, submitted a complaint to Pakistan Citizens’ Portal on April 15 alleging that two young men in a car harassed her in Bahria Town Phase VII and asked her to get into their vehicle.
They also blocked her way to embark in a cab and later followed her to Islamabad trying to block her vehicle and asking its driver about her destination. She changed her destination and hid in a mall until they left.
The complaint was forwarded to the inspector general of police Islamabad on April 16 which led to the registration of a case.
The police took two days to trace and arrest the suspects, who were students of a university and residents of Bahria Town. When the police informed the complainant about the arrest, she reached the police station and identified the suspects.
However, family members of the two men, including their mothers and sisters, also reached the police station and requested the complainant to pardon them. Besides, the suspects also apologised to her.
The Canadian woman accepted their apology and pardoned the men, the police said. In response, both the suspects were released.
Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2019
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Comments (29) Closed
Apr 19, 2019 07:49am
Hope they will never do this to any woman again!
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Apr 19, 2019 10:04am
How can they be released. There should be some fine or punishment.
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Apr 19, 2019 10:04am
Rediculous! How can a criminal be released at the behest of the accuser? Once a case is registered only the court can punish or set free the culprit. Maybe Pakistan follows a different legal system than the rest of the world.
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Apr 19, 2019 10:06am
A gesture to forgive after their parents tendered aplogise is welcomed.(Texas)
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Apr 19, 2019 10:09am
A complimentary slapping from the Police is the usual treatment. I hope it was hard enough to rid them from the satisfaction that they got away with it.
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Apr 19, 2019 10:18am
For all the hue and cry she created, she pardoned them. Would she have pardoned them, if the went a step ahead. This is not agreeable. Atleast they should have been behind bars for some months.This is a very weak gesture and send across wrong signals to such harassers. But in pakistan, blood mony and pardonign are so common, that some thing like this should have been expected
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Apr 19, 2019 10:40am
She got what she needed most a free ticket to fame and publicity which may accrue her a fortune in her profession in the foreseeable future.. This was a very smart and crafty move by the complainant from the very beginning and she made best out of it.
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Apr 19, 2019 10:46am
Sad, why has state abdicated its responsibility to prosecute criminals. This pardon from victim is nothing, if evidence is there they must be prosecuted by state.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:16am
While the decision to pardon an agressor, or harrasser in this case, by a victim is always noble and the high moral path, I wonder if this would not embolden the perpetrators who having gotten away with it once might be tempted to do it again. Quite often such criminals are spurred in to a spree just for the thrill - and getting away with it (as men in Pakistan almost always do) gives a signal of hunky dory. Even if the woman pardoned her, the state should have acted to punish them, even in a symbolic manner (like 50 hours of community service or gender sensitivity training). They should have been made to sign a public statement of acceptance and regret.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:31am
This forgiveness rule for such offenses needs to be cancelled. Mostly, the VIPs and rich get benefits of these laws.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:35am
@Mukesh, it is a different country. How many Indian politicians are on bail? Many with murder charges.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:45am
There is more to this story then a simple apology. We will never know the real truth. This is Pakistan.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:53am
It was I think only simple harassment without physical force involved. She can cancel her case. Police can consider it to be a minor case not worth following it. However since such cases are getting common , the court should follow and give a suspended sentence.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:55am
@Mukesh, Maybe You should educate yourself on other countries laws before acting like the Attorney general. The lady filed the case, she pardoned the accused. End of the story. now about the human rights violations in Kashmir, what can you tell us about that? In any other country, the leaders would be jailed for such brutality, yet here we are
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Apr 19, 2019 12:01pm
By pardoning them you have let down every woman to be harassed in future and you have encouraged every man who will harass women. They should have got some (atleast symbolic) fine/punishment.
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Apr 19, 2019 12:03pm
@Mukesh, ever heard of out-of-court settlement?
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Apr 19, 2019 12:04pm
All the drama apparently achieved its desired objectives. The culprits and partners-in-crime were meant to be 'pardoned' and go free.
She is now in the news here and in Canada. Small investment, big pay off! Objectives achieved.
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Apr 19, 2019 12:19pm
State should have proceeded to give exemplary public punishment to these guys which could have deterred others. Bad decision as usual
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Apr 19, 2019 12:48pm
I believe picture of these two Students along with their mother and sister should also be published in the media...this is the minimum punishment they should receive
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Apr 19, 2019 04:11pm
Both live in Bahria town, evidently belong to well to do family. They were out of control,family never botherd to check their activities . They got an easy pardon, I doubt they learned any lesson.
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Apr 19, 2019 05:41pm
@Mukesh, No FIR was filed. She complaint through a portal. Her not filing the FIR is the 'pardon'.
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Apr 19, 2019 08:36pm
Great job with the complaint! Not everyone can document the harassment so I’m glad you did and caught these guys.
They really should have been punished but can’t blame you for not wanting to go through whatever process we have in Pakistan to punish folks like these . Guys get away with everything in South Asia.
Hopefully you still have an enjoyable trip in Pakistan!
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Apr 19, 2019 09:27pm
The police usually bother the person making the complaint to pardon people because they dont want to go through all the paper work and effort, plus the accused are usually bad people with influential contacts who also exert pressure on the police to let them go. Therefore these people get away unpunished.
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Apr 19, 2019 09:48pm
She wasted resources of police. These guys, even after being pardoned, should have been behind bars for at least a week.
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Apr 19, 2019 10:21pm
Now, the mothers and sisters have a duty to keep a strict watch on their beloved sons and brothers and see where their care erred. This must have tarnished their good name in the society and might continue to linger along with their lives.
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Apr 19, 2019 11:26pm
@Abdul Rauf, they would do it again as men are creature of habit, otherwise they won't have done it in the first place .
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Apr 20, 2019 05:27am
I thought the idea was to set an example as a deterrent for all other sisters so that society could move a step forward. On the other hand, she set an example to encourage young men to keep doing the same as the accuser as well as legal system will pardon them consider it was not a big deal at all.
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Apr 21, 2019 06:20am
Fake news, again. This is not how an FIR is undone. A PM was hanged over an FIR. We all know how the system works.
Secondly, there is no record of the car in the Punjab excise department. Those concerned must look at who the car, with the license plate LEB 3630, belongs to. Registered in 2015.
This facade was an attempt to sabotage the efforts of the Tourism Summit. They planted this news all over our English newspapers to reach as many viewers as possible all over the world, using our very own media. The idea was to counter the image travel vloggers, who are mostly foreign women, had created that Pakistan is safe for them to travel in. They wanted to show that it's untrue.
Families of PSL's foreign players refused to travel to Pakistan, recently. Pakistan is stereotyped as unsafe but never this. It was always our neighbour that was stereotyped as unsafe for women.
This was definitely a psych-op.
It is time to lodge an FIR against her entire network, including her local 'help'.
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Apr 21, 2019 06:25am
This comment follows the previous one. The interior minister must take note of this fake news or else we will think he's another Buzdar.
Notwithstanding his reputation, even if it's true.
The FIR cannot be undone in this way and there are no records of the car in the excise department. All other fallacies have been made known.
Sabotaging the positive effects of the Tourism Summit, one of the very few good things this government is doing, is quite worthy of his attention.
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