- SC judge condemns killing of pregnant woman outside LHC
The brutal murder of the 25-year-old pregnant woman at the doorsteps of the Lahore High Court last week in the presence of the police was a horrifying incident, Supreme Court Justice Azamt Saeed said this in the inaugural ceremony of a one-week refresher course on “Gender Sensitisation and New Laws” for senior civil judges from all over Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) on Monday.
Lamenting the situation, the judge said, “If you open any national newspaper you will find several news items regarding ruthless murder of women. We are living in a society where newlywed women are burnt to death, where mothers invent the murder of their daughters, where justice seekers are being killed in broad daylight right under the nose of police and in the presence of a crowd.”
He said, “Unfortunately, we take our serious problems for granted. We never address our problems properly based on facts and research. Research conducted on this very important social issue reveals that no punishment to the evil doers coupled with attitude of police and judges towards the victim encourages such mob frenzy incidents.”
He said, “We have to discourage those attitudes which insult and oppress women. “There is nothing polite about such horrible incident which happened just outside the Lahore High Court which is one of the oldest high courts in the country.”
He said the brutal murder of women under one pretext or another was not, and it should not be the law of the land. “We should not allow men to do cruel things against women in our society.”
He said, “It is my personal observation, I could observe it when I was the chief justice of Lahore High Lahore that women make better judges if given a proper environment. They become focused and have less charges of corruption. Indeed, their requirements are treatable and those should be treated properly and we have to make sure that there should not be any discrimination against them.”
Presenting his welcome speech, FJA DG Dr Faqir Hussain said after the academy’s conversion into the Centre of Excellence for Law and Judicial Education, its scope has expanded. Besides imparting trainings to the key stakeholders of administration of justice system, it has also to impart trainings to others who are related to the administration of justice such as lawyers, prosecutors, prisons administration, and investigators, government officers. courses/modules are being designed for them.
He also highlighted the salient features of the course and said that primarily two issues such as gender sensitization and new laws along with some conventional subjects would become focus of this weeklong course.