Earlier this year, the Punjab Police held a public awareness march advocating for zero-tolerance towards crimes against women. The inspector general (IG) of police has been vocal about ending violence and harassment against women in the province: it is a new, zero tolerance policy.
Officers at police stations are quick to reference the policy but they concurrently claim that the city of Lahore is extremely safe for women. They may not be up to date with the current news: a pregnant mother of two was hanged from a fan and murdered by her husband just last week. A woman was gang-raped in front of her husband and children while the police fought over whose jurisdiction the crime falls within.
The Virtual Women’s Police Cell received a whopping 50,000 complaints from women in less than four months. Punjab alone reported 10,201 incidents of violence against women in 2023 with a disturbing 16 per cent increase from the previous year and most of these cases involve violence in homes.
Last month, I approached the police with a complaint of domestic violence and abuse on behalf of a victim who was beaten brutally by her husband’s brother and his wife. They ripped her clothes, punched her, stole her gold jewelry and threatened to rape and murder her. The victim called the police immediately.
Despite the first responders witnessing the attack, police officials discouraged her from filing a formal complaint and went so far as to threaten her for seeking to do so. The police did not investigate the matter or register a First Information Report (FIR) for over a month. The victim was told that the perpetrators had not carried out their threats to rape her – yet. She was shuttled from one police station to the next.
Discussions with the police revealed that they were painting the problem as a ‘family matter’ that does not require police intervention. No action was taken by the police and we were thus compelled to pursue the complaint through the IG police’s helpline at 1787. I would argue that even if it is a ‘family matter’, it requires immediate police intervention.
Over 1000 cases of women being murdered by their family members are reported in Pakistan every year and it is this kind of domestic violence that is ignored and may eventually result in the death of a woman.
The FIR was finally registered after a few more days through the welcome assistance of the Women’s Tahafuz Markaz. We also tweeted at the Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell who took immediate notice of the issue. Much to our dismay, the police included only one generic and bailable offence on their FIR of ‘assault or criminal force against a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty’, without conducting a detailed investigation into the complaints that were mentioned in the application.
The other offences that we included into our complaint are non-bailable offences and the accused would be required to serve out a sentence for his crime. It is no surprise that these offences were not added to the FIR. Instead, the accused was only arrested for a period of 12 hours and the court ultimately facilitated a compromise between the parties.
Later in the week, the perpetrator violated the terms of the compromise and filed a counter-FIR against the victim to seek revenge. The victim’s 65-year-old mother was arrested and kept in police lockup overnight. The police were able to give the perpetrator of violence justice within a day.
Advocating for a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards violence against women is commendable but must be met with an actual understanding of how this policy is to take effect in our socio-economic context where violence is considered acceptable when it occurs in a domestic setting.
Perpetrators of violence exploit religion and the law to abuse their victims. This is compounded with law-enforcement personnel perceiving domestic violence as a private family matter and discouraging victims from reporting incidents. Police warn victims that counter-complaints from the perpetrator will be filed against victims when they come forward. Instead of conducting thorough investigations under the law to determine the truth, officers frequently adopt the roles of mediators or counselors, to foster a compromise between the parties. This response perpetuates a culture of impunity for abusers and often ends with severe injury or the death of a woman.
While the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) includes provisions that criminalize intimidation of a woman, violating her ‘modesty’, assault and rape, enforcement of these provisions in domestic violence cases remains a significant challenge. Ultimately, the issue with implementation relates to perception and stems from a culture of ‘pardadaari’ or keeping at home what takes place at home. The Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act was passed in 2016 in an attempt to address the ‘mindset’ problem relating to cases of domestic violence.
The ethos of the law was to train police and public officials about the severe detrimental impact of domestic violence and how to guard against it. The law is groundbreaking as it recognizes emotional, psychological and economic abuse as a form of domestic violence for the first time in Pakistan. It sought to establish a strong rehabilitation and protection system for women through the grant of monetary orders that provide financial support to the victim, residence orders that prevent family members from evicting a woman from the marital house and protection orders that restrain against any harm to a victim. Notably, it empowers victims to seek legal recourse directly from the court, bypassing the traditional police complaint process.
This legislation aimed to shift the mindset of public officials, yet few steps have been taken to give it effect. Police officers and other public officials cling to outdated views that perceive and treat domestic violence as a family matter rather than as a grave violation of human rights.
To effectively protect women in their homes, police officers and first responders must undergo comprehensive psychosocial training as envisioned by the 2016 Act; this will enable them to recognize domestic violence as a crime rather than as a family dispute. Effective registration, investigation and prosecution in domestic violence cases will contribute to increasing female confidence, undoubtedly improving female labor participation and Pakistan’s economic prospects.
This shift in perspective is critical to ensuring women’s safety and for the success of the zero-tolerance policy.
The writer is a constitutional lawyer and the founder of She-her Pakistan.