Crime against women mar Pakistan Super League

Islamabad [Pakistan], March 28 (ANI): The incident of attempting to rape a girl during the Pakistan Super League (PSL) shows that the security in Pakistan is not as good as claimed by authorities and it is worrisome. Not only in the context of PSL but also generally because the real picture is very grave.
According to media reports, two private guards tried to rape a female near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, during the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). As per an FIR, the girl got lost after the match and forgot her way. “She saw two guards and sought help, however, they took her to a secluded place and tried to sexually assault her,” the FIR read, adding that the girl started screaming which alerted her brother and father, who rushed to the place, according to The Pakistan daily.
According to a report by Punjab Information Commission of February 2022, 2,439 women were raped and killed in name of “family honour” during last six months in the province.
“In Lahore, the metropolitan city of Punjab, 400 women were raped and 2,300 were kidnapped during this period, the data stated.
At least 11 rape cases were reported daily in Pakistan with more than 22,000 such incidents in the last six years (2015-2021), according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
“Only 77 offenders have been convicted and only 18 per cent of cases have reached the prosecution stage,” the report stated.
The Pakistan publication mentions the Qandeel Baloch incident and said that it seems that for the people such a case doesn’t hold any ‘importance’ where the brother of Qandeel Baloch killed her in the name of honour and the brother were freed from jail after their mother submitted a statement in the court that she had pardoned him.
Qandeel Baloch, who became famous for her defiant posts which flew in the face of the nation’s deeply patriarchal mores before her death in 2016.
It further mentions the Pakistan Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry who slammed the court’s decision and stated, “The government will challenge the verdict at Pakistan’s top court,” but still there is no update about this case. The publication hopes that the Pakistan government will fulfil its promise and will file a petition against Waseem in Supreme Court.
Notably, since the Imran Khan government came to power in August 2018, Pakistan’s Global Gender Gap Index has worsened over time. In 2017, Pakistan ranked 143, slipping to 148 in 2018.

According to the last year’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2021’, Pakistan ranked 153 out of 156 countries on the gender parity index, that is, among the last four.
The country has become more conservative since Imran Khan came to power. (ANI)