The Sindh Assembly on Thursday condemned a provoked rape offence by a local panchayat to victimize an innocent teen girl in Multan, asking the Chief Minister Punjab to quit for the human tragedy. The provincial legislators also demanded a ban on all local panchayat and hanging of the culprits in the open to make example out of them. A resolution moved by PPP's lady legislator, Khairunisa Mughal, 'strongly' condemns the Multan rape offence and called it an 'inhuman' act.
The mover said that the Punjab government should take all women in the province under protection since the men have not been trustworthy after the inhuman incident - which triggered by a local panchayat to settle an already rape case by punishing a 13-year-old with a forced sex offence. Dr Seema Zia of the PTI slammed the panchayat system that grew insecurity to women in the society, urging the lawmakers to term 'rape as a rape' and avoid hiding the severity of the offence with a mild terminology or expressions.
She said that raping of women and lynching of students even at the university level showed a retarded mindset of the society since no government invested in human development and nation-building. MQM's Syed Sardar Ahmed felt that rape cases in Punjab have grown where women have become downtrodden human with no state protection. "We condemn it and we demand hanging of the perpetrators in open", he said. MQM's Naheed Begum said that the main culprit of the tragedy is still at large and called the local panchayat system a parallel to the mainstream judiciary of the country. She said that the informal courts should be banned. "State should pursue the rape case and protect the poor and powerless victim", she demanded.
MQM's Rauf Siddique demanded all rape cases should also be registered against the SP and SHO of the area where incident takes place, hoping such a practice will bring down such tragedies to none. "The CM Punjab should resign for this tragedy since rape incidents are occurring regularly," he added. Immediately, PML-N's lady lawmaker clamored for harsh remarks from the treasury, saying that PPP's Imdad Pitafi called her 'mad' a few days back in the house. She called the offence by the treasury member as a 'dirty' mindset. However, Speaker, Aga Siraj Durrani rebuked her during her speech and denied to register her complaint after she used a word 'dirty' mindset.
The house earlier adopted "the Sindh Forensic Science Agency Bill, 2017' into law with a unanimous vote. Senior Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro tabled the bill, saying that legislation is aimed to help set up an agency for examination of forensic materials before sending cases to the courts. "To create a facility (laboratory), (agency) for forensic examination of material and rendering expert's opinion". The objective of is to provide an administrative and legal framework to the Sindh Science Forensic Laboratory and its findings/report for admissibility in the court of law," according to the statement of objects and reasons.