Pakistan is full of unpunished sexual violence ever since its creation. Over the recent years, it has been witnessing incessant increase in incidents of rapes that are creating a cry of despair and a sense of precariousness and fear. These heart breaking incidents has quashed the humanity and wrecked the visions and lives of women and children. Sadly, we are a part of that society where our sisters, mothers and children are not secure whether its day or night. Moreover, the data collected by authentic sources that 2966 rape cases have been reported in 2014, 2509 rape cases have been reported in 2015, 2938 rape cases have been reported in 2016, 1356 rape cases have been reported in 2017, 6027 rape cases in 2018, 1359 rape cases have been reported only in Punjab in 2019, according to the given records this shows that the accelerating rate of such cases is testament to the failure of the implementation of laws that already exist to protect the vulnerable. I present to you some of the cases as an example.
Farishta Mohammad, a 10 year old girl from Islamabad went out to play near her home but she did not return home. After searching the neighborhood and inquiring from her friends, her family could not find her. On 15th May 2019, her family went to the police to file a report for missing Farishta but to no avail. Farishta’s father, Gulam Nabi told the media that police didn’t help us at all and that they would ask me to clean their office, and move their furniture. When the news started spreading on social media and news paper and later on the case reported with a controversial statement which came from police they said that the family members were responsible for the delay in registering the report whereas Farishta’s father said when this incident took place, they immediately went to report but police denied all the above effort of her father. After a couple of days, the dead body of Farishta was found triggering the complaints that her life could have been saved if the police would have acted promptly.
This incident brought us back to the memories of six year old Zainab Amin Ansari, an eight years old girl, from Kasur. She had been on her way for quran class and never returned. Her body was found five days later, raped and strangled, her body was recovered from a heap of trash that was not far from her home. Zainab’s parents were in Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage when she went missing but they came back to bury their daughter. Mr. Aamin, father of Zainab and other family members had been insisting to the police that Imran is the culprit since Jan 5th, the day Zainab went missing, but according to him, the police ignored us. He and his relatives got Imran picked twice but police released him on both occasions.
Another recent incident of a woman resident of Lahore Defense Housing Society on 10th September 2020, driving from Lahore to Gujranwala with her two children speaks volumes of the unsafe roads and streets of Pakistan and of police incompetence and negligence.During her journey she ran out of petrol and got stuck on the motorway where she called the police for help while she waited for help to arrive, someone broke the window of car and dragged her and children in the field and raped that woman in front of her children.
All these cases show the negligence and carelessness and the fragile system of police and other investigating authorities.
Furthermore, the statement of CCPO Umar Sheikh added fuel to the fire, he said about the motor way incident that the victim has failed to take the precautions before setting off her journey she should not have been traveling alone without a male figure. There are many women who experience extreme violence and blamed for it and forced to shut their mouths. Is this what we want? This is the time Government should concentrate on the sexual abuse on children and women and it is also extremely important for parents as well, to educate their children and strategize to protect their children. This will end when there will be the end of such violence via transparent investigations, police competence and public punishments.
The perceived rewards, costs and low probability of punishment can be viewed as a contributory factor of the growing number of rape cases. Decision making theory asserts that people weigh cost and benefit of action, to take. This assertion is based on the view that, in general, human beings are self-interested and hedonistic and will make decisions that maximize personal gain.The rapist views rape as a rewarding, low risk act. Hence, the trend should be shifted towards high rate of punishment and heavy fines to the rapist. The fear of being caught and imprisonment are the key deterrence factors to decrease the incidence of rape cases.
Additionally, teaching women self-defense strategies appears to be effective tools in helping students prevent risky situations.