SPARC - Appeal

Daily Dawn :: 10.Jan.07 :: Seven alleged rapists of a girl abducted her for getting a case registered against them at Nathokay village. Reports said `F’ and his six accomplices had raped `S’ about two days back. The victim girl along with her father M.Ali contacted Saddar police which registered a case against the accused and referred the girl to DHQ for medical examination. On Wednesday, `S’ along with her brother Razzaq was going to police station with medical reports when the accused, who were threatening her with dire consequences, abducted her at gunpoint. Police have registered a case and are raiding for arrest of the accused.

Daily Times :: 09.Jan.07 :: Cheap at Rs 50 a tin and easier to get than illegal drugs, “Samad Bond” glue – the sniffers’ favorite brand – is flooding the streets of Karachi. The Pakistan Medical Association says substance abuse among street children has reached alarming levels. “If more is not done soon, Pakistan is heading for a street children hooked on glue crisis on the scale of other countries like Morocco and Brazil,” said Qaiser Sajjad, the association’s general secretary. There are about 14,000 street children in Karachi and most are sniffing glue, said Aksa Zainab, a social worker. “According to our research, 90 percent of these children are involved in glue sniffing or in some other solvent abuse,” Zainab added. (Karachi)

Daily Dawn :: 08.Jan.07 :: The students of Government Pehlvi High School Faizabad are facing a host of problems as their institution lacks even the basic infrastructure. The school built in 1948 has been declared dangerous by Public Works Department (PWD). It has no laboratory, drinking water and other essentials. Over 300 students enrolled in the school are being taught by a small faculty of 16 teachers who usually combine the students of different classes and deliver a single lecture to them.

Daily Times :: 08.Jan.07 :: Police investigating the sexual murders of two labourers have stumbled on India’s second serial killing case in the space of a few days, digging up nine bodies so far in the southern city of Hyderabad. The killings follow the discovery of skulls from 17 people, mostly children, at a house near New Delhi, in another murder drama that has transfixed India. Police had arrested two men after two labourers in Hyderabad, a centre for the tech sector, were sodomised and their heads smashed with a boulder. The arrested men told interrogators they had sodomised or raped and killed 13 people, most of them men but including two women. (Hyderabad, India)

:: 08.Jan.07 :: A festival celebrating the lives of the world’s most courageous children will take place in Kathmandu and Bandipur from January 13th-20th, organized by the Foundation of Terre des hommes Nepal (Lausanne, Switzerland). Among the works being presented at the Children in the Shadows Film Festival are Zana Briski’s powerful documentary Born Into Brothels about young girls and boys growing up amidst the squalor of Kolkata’s largest red light district.

:: 06.Jan.07 :: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education is one of the most inactive and ineffective bodies in the parliament as it has failed to perform any useful function. This was alleged by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives Pakistan (CPDI-Pakistan) in a statement here on Saturday. It expressed its concern over this state of affairs and urged the NA Standing Committee on Education to contribute to the education sector reforms through policy inputs and effective monitoring of the implementation of national education policy and other programs.

SPARC News :: 28.Dec.06 :: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) organized one-day provincial conference on Child Protection at Peshawar club.
The Minister for Social welfare and Women Development Mr. Kashif Azam was the chief guest. He promised that he would take the issue of hiring and appointment of Female Probationers officers with the Ministry in the coming meeting. The conference was attended by a large number of people belonging from different walks of life. (Peshawar)

Daily Times :: 15.Dec.06 :: The federal government is legislating on domestic violence against children and women to give right to report t o police or magistrate. The date of ‘hearing’ should not exceed 3 days from date of filing complaint. In case a child is sexually abused, he/she will be handed over to a person of his own choice. (Islamabad)

Daily Times :: 15.Dec.06 :: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the Government of Pakistan to frame rules for creating funds to pay Diyat, Arsh and Daman of the convicts who are languishing in jail due to their weak financial position. (Islamabad)

Daily Times :: 30.Dec.06 :: The Education Ministry should start compulsory and free primary education for girls by 2010 and free secondary education with progressive targets by 2020, suggested a study by the Women’s Development Ministry. According to the study, only 19 percent of all females in Pakistan have acquired education up to matric, 8 percent up to intermediate, 5 percent up to bachelors and 1.4 percent up to MA/MSc, while only 3.74 percent of Pakistani women are employed. (Islamabad)

Daily Times :: 29.Dec.06 :: Parents in rural areas are reluctant to send their daughters to schools located far away from their homes for safety reasons but this is not a problem for boys and children are usually stopped from attending school because their parents want the boys to start earning a living: Findings of Sindh Education Foundation Report. (Karachi)

Dawn :: 28.Dec.06 :: The district council was told that some 334 schools were lying closed in the district. ADO (education) Ghulam Rasool Keerio said of the closed schools, 121 were in Doulatpur taluka, 107 in Nawabshah and Daur and 88 in Sakrand taluka. Mr Keerio said that the number of closed schools was increasing due to transport problems, migration of villagers and setting up of schools at inappropriate places. (Nawabshah)

Daily Times :: 27.Dec.06 :: A hungry 10-year-old girl from India’s lowest Hindu caste had all the fingers of her right hand chopped off by an upper-caste landowner for taking a few spinach leaves from his field, reported the Hindustan Times on Monday. The attack took place in a village in Bhagalpur district last week in impoverished Bihar state where caste prejudice against Dalits – formerly called “untouchables” – is widespread and sometimes results in violence against them. (New Delhi)