Justice versus justice

Islamabad : The pictures were gory, the details were heart wrenching and the details of torture were gut twisting. How a woman could be so cruel to inflict this kind of torture on a 14-year-old girl, who is supposed to be spending all the time serving her 24 hours a day, as she was a ‘live-in’ servant.

Being a village girl, the poor victim had no body to approach to seek protection. Nor she could tell anybody as to what hell she was living through day and night. How she would have screamed and cried and sobbed when her bones were broken, her skull smashed, leave alone kicks and slapping in addition to verbal abuses which must have been part of the ‘Practice’. One is not sure as to how long she has lived this hellish life, suffering all this torture and humiliation but if one may have a good look at the medical report of her physical examination and the details mentioned by the police in the ‘First Information Report’ (FIR), one feels repulsive towards the perpetrators of all this violence and feel like revolting against the society which is letting such things go on without raising their voice.

This was not the first time and the way things are going, this won’t be the last. The most unfortunate and highly condemnable incident of torture on a 14-year-old female domestic servant by the wife of an ‘Honorable Judge’ has sent shockwaves all around.

A similar incident was reported in 2016 when an 11-year-old Tayyaba was tortured by wife of Additional Session Judge (ASJ) on 27th December, 2016. The police recovered the victim from the house of the ASJ two days after the incident was reported. Again it happened in Islamabad. Had the culprits dealt with according to the law without any prejudice and favour, this may not have happened again. However, the ASJ and his wife were tried and got punishment but they were, honourably, released by the court of law.

While all physical evidences are clearly establishing the facts of the victim being subjected to extreme violence, resulting in broken limbs, deep skull wounds to the extent that those got festered, eye almost lost, malnourishment besides other body wounds, the perpetrator is denying having committed all those acts of violence against the poor child.

The woman, who inflicted all this violence on her domestic servant, is not being arrested because she is the wife of an ‘Honourable Judge’. Police have taken up the case and a ‘First Information Report’ (FIR) has been penned down but accused lady has already got a ‘Bail Before Arrest’ from the court of law and now, instead of being ashamed or even apologetic, the husband, the ‘Honourable Judge’ is accusing media of running a ‘vicious media trial’ against him and his wife. Another medical report shocked the humanity that the victim Rizwana has been diagnosed with sepsis, her both lungs have been badly affected and she was also poisoned.

The report said that one of her lungs is badly affected while the other has drops of blood in it. He added that more samples had been sent to the laboratory for analysis. The Islamabad police, after facing worldwide strain criticising about the sincerity in the investigation of the torture case, the authority, finally, have constituted a 5-member ‘Special Joint Investigation Team’ (SJIT) headed by DIG (Operations), Syed Shahzad Nadeem Bokhari to grill the veracity of case. The SJIT has initiated the investigation and recorded statement of accused Somia Asim on the same day but refused to own allegation of torture.

Rizwan Abbasi, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan and practicing criminal lawyer, elaborates Child Protection law, when The News contacted him, saying, the act of Child Abuse is the most atrocious offence in law books and strong and effective laws of Child Protection are being exercised in Pakistan but public are unaware about the importance and strength of the law, resulted in terrifyingly increasing the offences of the Child Abuse.

Child abuse refers to any act or failure to act that causes harm or potential harm to a child's physical, emotional, or psychological well-being. It can take various forms, including physical abuse (inflicting bodily harm), emotional abuse (verbal or psychological harm), sexual abuse (involving the child in sexual activities), or neglect (failure to provide necessary care and attention), he maintained.

“Child abuse is highly depreciated by the Supreme law of Pakistan. Article 37 of Constitution of Pakistan 1973 protects the rights of children and women it also prohibits child abuse and child labour. Child protection Act is another piece of legislation which Child abuse or cruelty to child is a criminal offence in Pakistan governed by Section 328-A of Pakistan Penal Code 1860. Various convictions have been recorded under this section for committing cruelty to child, Rizwan Abbasi concluded.