PESHAWAR, Feb 23: Women rights activists and lawmakers in the NWFP assembly have accused the government of failing to provide security to women from religious extremists.
The rights activists condemned the murder of Punjab Social Welfare Minister Zille Huma by a fanatic and urged the government to bring the killer to justice.
“The state has failed to provide security to women, and now women in the political arena are being targeted. If this can happen to a woman minister, it can happen to any other woman,” said Bushra Gohar, a women rights activist.
She said various woman rights and human rights organisations held a meeting in Islamabad on Friday to form a strategy and condemn the murder of the minister.
She claimed that the government was also playing down the murder of the minister because she was a woman.
Dr Simin Mehmood Jan, an MPA of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, called the killing of the minister an “extremely sad incident” which could have been avoided.
“The innocent woman was killed by a serial killer and one does not understand why this serial killer was not punished earlier.” She said two children were deprived of their loving mother just because a serial killer was not punished and the minister was not provided security.Shagufta Naz, an MPA of the Jamaat-i-Islami, said Fatwas (religious decree) had been issued that a woman could not be the head of state but she could be appointed at high positions in the government. “Such acts should not happen and we feel sad about it.”
“We did not take to the streets in protest against the killing but we do condemn it,” she said.
Zahira Khattak, provincial vice-president of the Awami National Party’s women wing, also termed the killing of the minister government’s failure to protect women.
“The government has two faces; for the world it has a ‘modern face’ by appointing women as ministers but at home it has done nothing to provide security to women,” she said.
“If the accused had already killed other women then he should have been punished. He shouldn’t go unpunished now so that he could not kill other women in future,” she said.
The Alliance for Protection of Human Rights also condemned the murder of Zille Huma and called upon the government to give an exemplary punishment to the killer to stop such incidents.
In a statement issued here on Friday, the alliance comprising Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Aurat Foundation, Khwendo Kor, Shirkat Gah, Sungi Development Foundation, Sustainable Participatory Organisation and the Noor Education Trust noted with grave concern that the accused Ghulam Sarwar had a history of killing women.
Gujranwala district police officer was quoted by the media as saying that the accused was charged with killing other women four years ago, but was acquitted by a local court for lack of evidence. It was a matter of anguish for every citizen of the country that a serial killer was roaming freely even after taking the lives of other women in the past, the statement said.
The accused claimed to have killed the woman minister for not observing a proper dress code, but women in Pakistan had always observed the traditional dress code that was in accordance with local norms, the statement said, adding: “Hijab and rule by women cannot be a reason for killing women.”
Blaming the government for the worsening law and order situation in the country, the rights body said the assassination of the minister proved that now the “high-profile” people had become vulnerable too, let alone the common people.