MULTAN: The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Human Rights Center which is redressing grievances of women in distress is going to arrange a reconciliation session between a woman and her husband after she was tortured and driven out of her home.

Adeela Ikram, a resident of Lutfabad, lodged a complaint with the center on May 27 that her husband Nadeem had not only ejected her from her home after torture but also detained her two minor daughters Anaya (2) and Ifra (1).

She requested the center’s administration to help her get back her children and belongings.

Social Welfare Officer Imtiaz Feroze told Dawn that the legal team of the center filed a petition with the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, and recovered both the girls on the direction of the court the same day.

She said the victim also sought center’s help to get divorce. However, after she held a counseling session with Adeela, she agreed to give reconciliation effort a chance. Feroze said the center always made efforts for keeping the family unit intact and “we hope to avoid separation in this case too.”

She said since the complainant and her husband were cousins, chances of reconciliation were bright.

The social welfare officer said the center was providing services to women in distress, including counseling to cope with stress, legal guidance and legal aid, temporary/immediate shelter, free medical aid for victims of violence, psychological assessment and counseling, crisis management and safety planning and creating financial literacy for ending cycle of disempowerment.

She said since its establishment in 2007, the center has solved 2534 cases out of about 2600.

“The reason behind unresolved cases is lack of interest by a complainant because of mutual consent of both the parties, unwillingness on the part of the victim to continue with the process and family pressure on the victim.”

She said before the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, the center was looked after by the federal government and there was a facility to provide short-time shelter to a victim but now the center was not proving short-term shelter and those seeking shelter had to stay in Darul Amaan.

She said that the center was playing the role of a mediator as 90 per cent cases were of family counseling and in rare cases victims needed legal assistance.

“Through counseling we have resolved many cases, including property disputes which take years to resolve through courts,” she said.

Feroze said the center administration followed the resolved cases either by remaining in contact with the family through phone or by visiting their houses.

“In case a family does not allow us to visit their house, we remain in contact through phone with the victim,” she said.

She said that in some cases the center administration faced hurdles in helping a victim due to lack of police support.

“If police provides us two constables, a male and a female, our performance will improve,” she said.

She said the overall cooperation of the police and courts was appreciable.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019