KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday ordered provincial authorities to establish police rescue centers for women in each division of the province and release the sanctioned amount of Rs 145 million for women's safe houses.
The two-judge SHC bank headed by Judge Salahuddin Panhwar also ordered the province's secretary of finance to ensure that Rs200m, sanctioned by the child protection authority, must be released within a month.
The bank also requested the secretary of finance to release Rs145m for safe houses within a week and, in case of default, he would be exposed to contempt of judicial proceedings.
He also noted that, when analyzing the seriousness of the problem, the authorities interested in assisting the secretary of the women's development department should establish rescue police at the divisional level and the same should be ordered by the superior police superintendents.
SSP women should work independently in coordination with the women's development department, the bank said, adding that until the new recruitment, women police officers and agents will separate and train according to the state guidelines of the commission on women and the women's development secretary.
As for a permanent mechanism, banks were informed that all issues related to women would be included in a single umbrella and would be addressed within three to four months and a committee would be formed in this regard that would include development secretaries of women and social welfare. departments.
The women's development secretary said Sindh police had established a model protection center for women and children and that eight other similar centers in other parts of the province had also been notified.
The bank ordered the provincial police officer to submit a compliance report on the matter at the next hearing.
He also requested the orphanage board to guarantee the registration of all private orphanages.
The SHC through a ruling in 2016 in the Rehmat Bibi case had ordered provincial authorities to establish safe houses and rescue centers for women in the province, particularly for the protection of women after contracting free will marriages.
In a previous hearing, the provincial authorities informed the bank that Rs145m had been assigned to 29 safe houses for women in the province.
Previously, the bank also ordered that all issues related to women be dealt with by a department with full autonomy, since previously the status of the women's commission, social welfare and women's development dealt with such problems.
Posted on Dawn, October 8, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1509551/shc-orders-setting-up-of-women-rescue-police-centres-in-every-division