Government to compensate missing person’s family
The Interior Ministry on Saturday, December 12, assured the Islamabad High Court that a total of Rs 4.3 million in compensation will be disbursed to Maira Sajid, wife of software engineer Sajid Mehmood who had been abducted in the presence of his family and friends from his home in F-10 Islamabad in March of 2016.
Maira Sajid had appealed to the high court that she was unable to sustain her family without the income of her husband has been missing since the past four years. The court had directed the Interior Ministry to pay the amount equalling to what the missing engineer would have contributed to his household expenses, and expressed hope that the amount would be issued within two months.
Report on rape case SOPs sought
The Sindh High Court ordered the provincial authorities to submit a report on finalized standard operating procedure (SOP) for medical examinations in rape cases. In a previous hearing, the court had ordered the simplification of a draft of SOP, noting that some aspects contained in the draft were outside the purview of the law and of police investigative practices.
The order came about during hearing of a petition that despite the Supreme Court’s orders to abolish the two-finger test to determine whether or not a woman was sexually assaulted, police were still relying on the outdated, intrusive and medically incorrect procedure.
Protesters decry police inaction in torture case
Relatives of a man who was paraded naked and tortured by four ‘influential’ men staged a protest in front of the Larkana Press Club against alleged police cooperation with the assailants. The protesters claimed that law enforcement authorities had failed to arrest two suspects nominated in the FIR, Muzzamil Abro and Ali Dino Khokhar, and were giving special treatment to two detained suspects, Farman Abro and Javed Khokhar.
Rustam Kandhiro was tortured and stripped naked, before being held captive where he was subjected to further humiliation by the four men for picking flowers from an influential person’s guesthouse. The ordeal was filmed and made viral on social media. Although police assured the tortured man’s family of swift arrests, the accused have been pressuring them to settle the matter out of court.