Panchayat: A slap on the Judiciary System of Pakistan.
January 24 2014, another sad day for humanity and for "Islamic Republic of Pakistan". A brother yet again sacrificed his sister on his affair in RADIWALA, a small hamlet of some thirty houses located near Ihasanpur town which is 80 km from Muzaffargarh.
What was F Bibi's fault?
A woman living in a male dominated society considers her father and brother as her core support and defender of her glory. But in Ihsanpur The only support of F Bibi, brother threw her in the fire of panchayat (a parallel judiciary system) to pay for his crime.
Ajmal, F Bibi’s brother was having an alleged affair with Majeed’s wife. For which the 42 year old F Bibi paid the price. Her only fault was that she was born as a woman with poor and rural background in a society which is male dominated.
On Majeed' demand the panchayat held for 10 minutes and gave the inhuman verdict against F Bibi. The so called punishment was to put F Bibi in front of those men to punish Ajmal.
They stripped her clothes off, beat her, tortured her and then raped her. Among those nine criminals, six have been arrested.
Sadly, everyone in the village stayed quiet and no one stopped them. But this is not the first time. What happened to MUKHTARAN Bibi in 2002? Same place, same panchayat and same a daughter of EVE was ripped by them.
Yet again a daughter of EVE is suffering in a society which is shouting loudly for shariah and Islamic law. But do they really know that, doesn’t Islam teaches a man to respect a woman? Where is the constitution now and the saviors of constitution of Pakistan? Don't we have any laws for women's rights in the constitution? I am sure, we have rights and laws but they aren't implemented properly. The reality is that these panchayats are well supported by our rural based politicians.
Pakistani society is turning into a frustrated society and especially what is happening in rural areas of Punjab is really upsetting for women like me. Why these cases are mostly from PUNJAB?
The SHO who is investigating the case said the police had arrested six men while another three were at large…why 3 are still not arrested. They should arrest F BIBI’S brother too .
Dr.NusratRehman, who conducted the medical examination on F Bibi, told Dawn the woman “was not raped”, apparently following a definition which requires something ‘more grievous’ than stripping and physical assault for it to be called ‘rape’. His degrees should be checked along with his bank statement.
My question is, if F Bibi has said that there was no rape, then WHY SHE WANTED TO BURN HERSELF? WHY SHE COMMITED SUICIDE?
WHY ONLY A WOMAN PAYS THE PRICE OF THE CRIME OF A MAN IN SUCH SYSTEM?
THE PANCHAYAT IS THE SLAP ON THE DEMOCRACY OF PAKISTAN.