Daily Times

LAHORE: Despite rigorous efforts made to highlight the value of human rights, especially women’s rights, in the last decade, there is still a grave need of gender parity in Punjab.

Considerable inequality was observed across the justice sector institutions in the first Punjab Gender Parity Report (PGPR) and Gender Management Information System (MIS), Daily Times has learnt.

The report available with this scribe was carried out by Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) and the Urban Unit. The PGPR research was based on comprehensive analysis of data collected on essential indicators to ascertain the status of women in Punjab. The report claimed that the Punjab Persecution Department (PPD) does not have gender sensitivity trainings for prosecutors, as only 96 females out of 1,023 were prosecutors in PPD, which makes the ratio less than 10 percent.

The Punjab Judicial Academy has two to three gender sensitivity trainings for judges each year. However, the number of judges who attended these trainings was not very high (422 since 2012).

Representation of male judges was dominant as compared to female judges in Punjab judiciary, as out of 1,830 judges in lower courts, only 266 were females, making a ratio of around 15 percent. Out of the existing 55, there are only three female judges in the Lahore High Court namely Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Aalia Neelum and Justice Erum Sajad Gull.

According to the report, number of female prisoners was very small as compared to male prisoners across the 37 prisons of Punjab. There were some 49,025 prisoners of which 939 were females, as per the data collected on December 31, 2016. Meanwhile, out of the 939 female prisoners, 599 (64%) were under trial, 295 (31%) were convicted while only 45 were condemned.

Several recommendations were presented in the PGPR. “The Punjab Bar Council (PBC) must reorganise the Legal Aid Society (LAS) and its district committees to make it an effective organisation that provides legal aid to a significant number of people, especially women. The PPD and police department must have gender sensitivity training for its prosecutors and police officers respectively. The Punjab Judicial Academy must increase the number of training provided in a year and as well as the number of judges who attend these trainings,” the report added.

It also suggested that all prisons must develop an effective referral system through which prisoners in need of legal representation are referred to the Legal Aid Society.