Sonia Naz

Pakistan is in the headlines for the wrong reasons again. Surprise, surprise the issue is woman related ..... This time it is Sonia Naz. Her husband Asem , a junior clerk in the government excise office was arrested (along with 17 others) in 2004 for forging documents for Stolen cars.

Press reports stated that the police bypassed the law and did not document these arrests." Instead Asem and the other men were detained in illegal custody with the intention of extorting money for their release.

Apparently for months after that the police continuously blackmailed his family asking for bribes ( The amount they demanded continued to increase). The family suffered terribly as a result and Sania having had enough went public about the case in May(it is easier to go public now with the media being more "free").

A few days later she was raped and told to stay quite or face dire consequences. She did stay quite about the rape incident till august 30 when she went to the media with her tragic story. Her Father In law wasn't happy:

" This stupid girl (Sonia) wanted to move courts, media and the National Assembly to seek justice against Abdullah. She used to make tall claims that she would fight against the injustice of the SP. Now, she has been given justice by police," Yousaf said, sarcastically, before breaking down again."

She was thrown out of her house and her sister in-laws wanted her divorced!!!!

More details about this case can seen on The Glasshouse Blog:

The blog also has background, subsequent events ,updates and links to more updates...

This incident summarizes : the corruption of the Police force; the fear that the common person has of the so called law enforcing agencies; the pathetic reaction of a family to a Rape Victim; and the reluctance of higher government officials to take action against the Police.

One Positive I do see out of this all is the role that the media played in this saga..