Pakistan covers up rape of Kashmiri earthquake victim

Ajeeba Arshad’s rape being hushed up

By Ali Waqar

LAHORE: Government functionaries pressured a Kashmiri earthquake survivor who was allegedly raped by a doctor to withdraw her statement in fear that the case could damage Pakistan’s image, Daily Times has learnt.

Ajeeba Arshad Ibrahim from Azad Kashmir was injured in the October 8 earthquake and shifted to Lahore’s Mayo Hospital for treatment in the first week of November. On December 3, she was allegedly raped by Dr Maqsood Leghari of Mayo Hospital in an X-ray room.

Ajeeba submitted a handwritten complaint to the police and a first information report was lodged, but a few days after the story hit the front pages, she retracted her statement. This retraction came after government officials, including leaders from Azad Kashmir, contacted her and her family and told her that the case would have negative consequences for Pakistan’s image and its efforts to get aid for reconstruction, sources told Daily Times.

Ajeeba’s family has refused to get her medically examined, the only way to establish rape. Sources close to the family said they had been pressured by the government and intelligence officials to stop making public statements as well.

After the case appeared in the press, the police immediately took Ajeeba into custody. She is still in ‘protective custody’ and living with her uncle, Maulana Muhammad Akram Kashmiri, who is in charge of Jamia Ashrafia in Neela Gumbad, Anarkali.

Sources said the Punjab government had been “instructed” to hush up the matter.’ AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat, his advisor Raja Farooq, Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed, Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood and Punjab Inspector General Ziaul Hassan are among those said to have visited Jamia Ashrafia. The madrassa is being closely monitored by intelligence officials and plainclothes policemen.

However, the Punjab health minister and senior police officials denied there was any pressure on the family. Dr Javed said the family itself denied the incident and withdrew the statement. He said if the Supreme Court, which has taken suo moto notice of the case, decided an independent inquiry should be conducted, its decision would be honoured.

According to a police inquiry report, ward nurses confirmed that Ajeeba was in the X-ray room with Dr Leghari at the time of the alleged rape. The report also said Ajeeba’s age was 15, and not 18, as the Mayo Hospital medical superintendent told the police. According to a hospital inquiry, witnesses saw the girl and the doctor act friendly towards each other prior to the alleged rape.

Ajeeba is due to testify in the Supreme Court today. Dr Leghari is in police custody, but SSP Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmed told a press conference on Tuesday that if, as expected, Ajeeba withdraws her statement, the doctor would be released.

Some from among the patients and their families who were in the same Mayo Hospital ward as Ajeeba told Daily Times she spent three hours in the X-ray room on the day of the alleged rape. They said she spent the next two days weeping, and then narrated the incident to another girl in the ward.

Dr Leghari, about 43, does not have a good reputation, hospital officials told Daily Times. They said there were numerous complaints from patients against him on record. Some 30 pairs of women’s underwear were found in his car and the incident was reported in the Urdu press.

Human rights activists said the case fit a pattern of cover-ups of crimes against women. “Image phobia is driving the state and its machinery in a carte blanche cover up of crimes against women,” said Asma Jehangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Those who insist on justice are silenced in various ways, sent out of the country, threatened, put under house arrest and left to fend for themselves against the highhandedness of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In such situations journalists and human rights activists are left to follow these cases without clues and support. At times they also have to protect the victim from ugly publicity and real threats.”

Justice (r) Malik Muhammad Qayyum, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said there must be a through and independent investigation of the case. He suspected the girl had changed her statement because she had no confidence in the police.