The civil society organisations on Monday renewed the resolve to help Uzma Ayub, a rape victim in Karak district, and appealed to the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to arrange lawyer for the family of married woman Saba Pervez, who was slain in Peshawar last month.
The resolve was made at a meeting attended by the representatives of the Woment Action Forum, Blue Veins, Shirkat Gah, Noor Education Trust, SPARC, Khwendo Kor, CRSD, Society for Rights and Development and Aurat Foundation.
The participants discussed the cases of Uzma Ayub of Karak and murder of Saba Pervez of Peshawar. A teenager, Uzma Ayub rape story appeared in different newspapers on October 4. The teenage girl was allegedly kidnapped a year ago, held captive and repeatedly raped by several persons, including policemen.
The CSOs representatives expressed sympathy with the victim family and vowed to support the victim girl legally, morally and ethically. The meeting discussed the facts of the case that had surfaced thus far. It was noted that the victim had recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CPC in FIR No 363 and noted that the government had constituted a three-member inquiry committee to probe the facts.
The CSOs representatives discussed the case of Saba Pervez, a married woman who was murdered last month and whose parents were running from pillar to post to find an advocate to plead their case in a court of law against the accused, who himself was a lawyer.
The participants said the father of the slain woman had deplored that no lawyer was ready to plead the case. He engaged a lawyer from Kohat but he too did not appear on second hearing. The father of the slain woman then contacted the local chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which did not respond to the repeated written requests for legal help.
Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan gave time to the family to find a counsel for the next hearing to be held on 14th of the bail petition of the accused but the family had found no lawyer to plead the case. We have been trying to hire the services of a competent lawyer but some of the lawyers we have tried have refused to accept the case as the accused is from their legal fraternity, the family alleged as was reported in a section of the press.
The participants of the meting said the parents of the woman had no trust in the public prosecutor after they saw lawyers allegedly supporting the accused when he appeared in court for the previous hearings.
Apart from appealing the chief justice of Pakistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to arrange a lawyer for Saba Pervez s family, the CSOs representatives demanded the bar associations to go through the matter and stop supporting the alleged murderers.
