LAHORE Feb 09 (TNS): While greater opportunities in various fields are giving way for Pakistani women to excel, a greater number of harassment cases against them are being reported each year.
In Punjab, over the past one year, 761 cases of harassment against women were filed, according to the institution of the Federal Investigation Agency, a private television channel reported.
Despite countless bills passed regarding harassment against women and various public awareness initiatives, the number of harassment cases indicates that there has been no measurable decrease in these cases despite several measures being taken.
In the past one year, many women came forward to file cases against harassment out of which 103 cases went further for inquiries while 376 cases could not advance and were dismissed either due to someone’s absence from courts or failing to provide enough evidences, according to FIA.
Despite all the efforts to ensure safety for women, 251 cases of harassment were never investigated. Some sources state that FIA Punjab has registered 93 inquiries out of which only 8 cases received immediate attention and were filed for further investigation, while 23 inquiries were dismissed, in which all the female clients provided evidences to support their cases.
“When women are harassed, especially if it is online, they are blamed for it instead of being defended, which makes it hard for them to pursue these cases further,” said a young student while speaking to Dunya News.
FIA officials state that women do file complaints against their harassers but due to societal pressure, they do not wish to go further with the court proceedings and withdraw from cases through reconciliatory methods, which they claim is one of the many reasons of the continuous increase in such cases.
