The civil society on Sunday demanded of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice and order the police to register FIR under Section 3 and 4 of the Trafficking in Persons Act 2018 in the Rizwana torture case. The Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) in collaboration with other civil society organizations continued to mobilize the public for their weekly protest across the country to demand justice for Rizwana, an underage domestic worker who was allegedly brutally abused by her employer, the wife of a civil judge.
Despite the recent arrest of the accused, the SSDO brought to the notice the fact that the Chief Justice of Pakistan still hasn’t taken suo motu notice. We’ve often seen that even if an accused is arrested, no actual conviction is ever made, they are simply just acquitted, said Syed Kausar Abbas, Executive Director SSDO. He said, that is why all of us have gathered on this one platform with the demand to ensure that the ones responsible for this should be held accountable for their actions, and actually punished to the full extent of the law, under the Prevention of Trafficking Act 2018. Not only is this a textbook example of trafficking, this is a non-bailable offence and according to Section 7 of the act, the court may not consider the consent of victim, parents or guardian’ as a defence of employing children under forced labour. Until then, all of us will keep raising our voices and calling attention to this issue. We protested here last week, and we will do it again next week. We assure you that we will not stop until justice is served.”
The protest was participated by a diverse group of individuals from different backgrounds such as social activists, media, students, legal fraternity, public policy professionals, and common citizens. As per FIR and media reports, the Humak police registered a case on the report of the girl’s father under Sections 506 and 342 of the PPC. The SSDO also put forth their agenda which is calling upon the police to register an FIR of trafficking in persons under Section 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2018 (PTPA 2018).
While reading out their mandate, Khurram Malik, Manager Program Development at SSDO said that this was a clear case of compelled labour as defined in Trafficking in Persons Act 2018, though the police was resistant to add Section 3 and 4 of the Prevention of trafficking in person act in FIR.
According to Section 3 (1) of the PTPA 2018, TIP offence is defined as any person who recruits, harbours, transports, provides or obtains another person, or attempts to do so, for compelled labour or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion, commits an offence of trafficking in persons and shall be punished with imprisonment.
Furthermore, Malik continued by saying, “Section 3 (2) of the PTPA 2018 further states that if the victim is a child, the punishment would extend to ten years and a million rupees fine, or both. Moreover, Section 4 defines aggravating circumstances as serious injury, life-threatening illness or death of the victim or another person. This would further carry a penalty of up to fourteen years and two million rupees fine. It is evident that Rizwana’s case is exactly as described under the human trafficking law.”