PAKISTAN: Violent Death of Girl in Pakistan Spurs Push for Justice

The house servant died on Friday 22 January after working for eight months in Naeem’s house. An initial medical report indicated she died gradually from blows from a blunt instrument, wounds from a sharp-edged weapon, misuse of medicines and malnourishment. Key media highlighted the case on Pakistan’s airwaves, and minority rights groups along with high-ranking Christian politicians have swooped in to help. The power of Muslim attorney Naeem, a former president of the Lahore Bar Association, was such that officers at Litton Road police station refused to listen to Shazia’s relatives when they tried to file a complaint to retrieve her three months ago, telling the girl’s relatives, “a case against a lawyer cannot be registered,” her uncle Rafiq Masih told Compass. Her mother, Nasreen Bibi, told Compass Naeem came to their home on the day Shazia died and offered 30,000 rupees ($A400) to keep the death secret and to pay for burial expenses. “I refused to accept their offer, and they went they went away hurling death threats,” she said.

Source: Compass Direct