Pakistan witnessed surge in offences against women last year

ISLAMABAD: Around 34,000 women registered complaints regarding different types of offences last year across Pakistan apart from Balochistan, official data showed.

The data available with The News reflected that most of the cases of rape in the country happened in Punjab, whereas cases, such as honour killing of women and burning them, emerged from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Giving reasons for the escalating abuses and offences against women, Afzal Shigri, former IGP Sindh, explained to this correspondent that due to increased education and awareness among the women, they are asserting their rights and challenging the male dominance that is facing resistance by the established norms in the country.

Explaining about the crimes, such as honour killing and burning women in Sindh and KP, Afzal said that the conditions have become worse due to low literacy and tribal/feudal dominance in the rural areas of Sindh and KP.

In the year 2021, Punjab received the highest number of complaints contributing up to 71 percent of the total complaints that the authorities received from all over Pakistan. In Sindh, the total number of 6,842 offences were reported to the Women Protection Cell in the same year, whereas, 2,766 complaints were made by women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A total of 540 complaints of criminal offences like rape, murder and kidnapping, 1,939 complaints related to inheritance of property, 3,481 cases of domestic violence, 3,571 complaints of harassment and 1,790 complaints regarding the family issues were made by the women to the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women in the past year. Other complaints that were made in Punjab by the women were regarding their education and health, which were 12,975.

According to the information given by the Women Protection Cell, Sindh, reported a total of 6,842 cases of violence against women. Around 142 women were raped in 2021 in Sindh only, according to the data shared by the Women Protection Cell.

Most of the complaints regarding the violence against women in Sindh came from the Hyderabad region. A total of 2,447 complaints of violence against women came from Hyderabad, 1,288 from Karachi, 1,450 from Sukkur, 427 from Larkana and 360 complaints from Mirpur in the year 2021.

Furthermore, around 94 women were murdered for honour, while 523 were reportedly blackmailed in different parts of Sindh in 2021.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the year 2021, a total of 343 cases of rape and 1,522 cases of abduction were reported by the women. According to the data shared with this correspondent, 127 women complained of being physically harassed, while 27 women complained of being sexually harassed in KP. In 2021, 20 women were kidnapped, three women were burned with acid, 100 cases of beating women emerged and 299 women were murdered in KP only. Furthermore, 85 women registered their complaints regarding the murder attempts against them. In the same year, around 125 women were killed for honour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.