Declaration Report on burn cases
According to the AGHS burn unit, 50 burn cases were reported in the Mayo and Services hospital in the first six months of 2006, out of which 22 victims died. 35 were reported accidental and 15 were said to be deliberate, there were even more cases that went unreported. Out of the 15 deliberate cases FIR was lodged in five cases only. The report also said that several cases that were reported as being accidental seemed to be deliberate violence against women.

According to the report, in 2005, a total of 101 burned victims from Punjab were admitted to hospitals, out of which 59 died. However only 16 cases were registered.

Similarly in 2004 out of the total of 108 burned victims 64 died, but only 24 cases were registered, while in 2003, 118 burned victims were admitted to the hospitals out of which 62 died but the police registered only 13 cases. In 2002 the number of victims was 149, out of whom 101 died, but only 26 cases were registered.

One of the major reasons for such cases not being reported was that most women were afraid of their husbands. In other cases, the women’s family chose to remain silent, mostly due to coercion by their in laws or the party responsible for setting fire to their daughter. According to the report even though doctors in 40 percents of the cases, refused to believe that the fire was an accident, but they still have to treat them as such.

Violence against women A press release of Madadgaar Help line, a project of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) said that during the first six months of year 2006 print media had reported 1,336 cases of physical abuse and 266 cases of sexual abuse against women. It said that out of total reported 1602 cases of violence against women, there were 595 cases of murder, 207 cases of rape and gang rape, 712 cases of injury by sever torture and 28 cases of harassment were report in the National and provincial news papers. HRCP recorded 1821 cases of violent crimes against women including murder, rape mutilation, burning and other offenses during the 2006. The number was 1726 in year 2005.

Rescued from traffickers - Lahore
Kanwal, wife of Gulzar Masih (tailor) went to Manchester with Ms. Azra. Before Kanwal was married 13 years ago she used to work as maid at Azra’s house. Azra offered Kanwal to go with her to Manchester to work as maid. She was promised that her husband and children could join her after six months.

In June 2006 Kanwal went to Manchester, she had to work in detention and not allowed to step out of the house. Her calls to her family were monitored and by July she was told that if she wanted to see her husband and children again she had to pay Rs 600,000. That family asked Gulzar on phone that he should pay the said amount to Rafi, Azra’s husband living in Lahore otherwise they would force Kanwal into prostitution. An NGO was contacted and Kanwal was recovered and a case was registered in Manchester against her employers.                                                          Daily Dawn July 30, 2006

Recommendations
1. We demand that a legal protection and remedy should be provided against domestic violence aiming at protecting the women and children.

2. Repeal of all discriminatory laws against women (Hudood Ordinances, Qisas and Diyat Ordinance section 10 and Citizenship Act).

3. We demand that appointments of female human rights officers and women police in all police stations to curb the crimes against women.