ISLAMABAD: Police in Lahore have arrested a woman for beating to death her 10-year-old maid after accusing the girl of stealing a few rupees, less than a dollar's worth.
The girl died on Thursday, after her employer had brought her to hospital.
Police official Mohammed Yousaf says the doctors alerted the police after seeing signs of abuse and torture on the girl's body. Later, the woman confessed to killing her maid with a steel pipe.
Child labor is common in Pakistan, which has no legislation setting a minimum age for work.
Children — mostly from extremely poor and illiterate families — are commonly employed in households for domestic work and often exposed to verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
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Comments (30) Closed
Oz
Jan 04, 2014 02:35pm
How many more ??
Give her public punishment with the same steel rod !
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canuck
Jan 04, 2014 03:27pm
Go after the child's parents too. They need to hand along with the employer. RIP little Girl.
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asif
Jan 04, 2014 04:49pm
The poor have no rights in muslim countries despite our 'moral superiority' over the west. Our moral values seem to be very selective in who they apply to.
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SR
Jan 04, 2014 04:49pm
If anything can really help in this situation then it's not to outlaw child labor as those kids would either go hungry or end up on streets. One child per couple is the law that Pakistan needs more than anything! As for criminals of such heinous crimes, they must be dealt with an iron fist. Torturing them/jailing them can never be a better lesson to them then to give one half of their wealth to the affected family and for a certain time period (years), to live at the same living/economic standard as the victim - having to work in other people's homes and knowing what it's like to be a maid.
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Modasar Chaudhry
Jan 04, 2014 04:50pm
For Dawn and AP and the webmaster: Hasnt Pakistan ratified the ILO Minimum Age (Industry) (Revised) Convention, 1937 (No. 59) which puts the minimum age to work in Pakistan at 14 years.
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Aamir Akram
Jan 04, 2014 05:42pm
The poor girls employer is in custody now awaiting trial with an expectation that she will be handed a long sentence, what is the punch line here?
I am assuming that there will be repurcussions, or was the story just a notification that another one of Pakistan's monied set has crossed the boundary of basic human decency at zero personal cost
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Abul
Jan 04, 2014 05:58pm
Will that woman be punished for 1st degree murder? Will the CJ of Supreme Court take suomoto action ? Or will it become a forgotten case?
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Khizr
Jan 04, 2014 06:35pm
Innallillahe-wa-inna-alehey-rajeoon.
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Blitzer
Jan 04, 2014 06:39pm
This is such a sad incident. Unfortunately, without legislation against child labor and child abuse, and more importantly, without proper implementation of such legislation, such incidents will continue to happen unabated. My condolences go out to the little girl's parents.
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Me
Jan 04, 2014 08:58pm
These people are Animals in the form of human beings or may be worst. Yet we will blame to USA n INDIA for our plight.
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independentthinker
Jan 04, 2014 09:16pm
.... and are often exposed to verbal, physical and sexual abuse ... how can a civilized society accept this as a norm! It is expressed as a fact of living in Pakistan and we just have to accept it. Where is the conscience of these leaders and law enforcement personnel, whose job is to stop these kinds of atrocities against the innocent? Personally, I think they are just as guilty as the woman who killed this innocent child and should be held accountable!
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rana1
Jan 04, 2014 09:27pm
well the lady who killed the girl has 3 choices,....death penalty, or spend time in jail or pay off the parents if they agree.(most likely, because this is why the child was made to labor)
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kashif
Jan 04, 2014 10:06pm
curious, i wonder why the confessed killer's name isn't publicised in the article? no wonder the crime of domestic worker abuse continues.
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Safwan
Jan 04, 2014 10:38pm
Life imprisonment that is what she deserves.
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malik
Jan 04, 2014 11:24pm
People are so callous and pathetic when it comes to treating maids and servants. They are made to over work and almost paid nothing and treated like pariahs. Whenever I go back home I am terrified to see how maids are treated without any contrition. Some new laws limiting their working hours and min wage and needed to make this situation somewhat better. Media also needs to play its role in educating people about how to treat maids,
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shoukat sheikh
Jan 04, 2014 11:58pm
1. There should be laws against child slavery in Pakistan.
2. This woman should bear the consequences of her action regardless of her status or the wealth.
3. Education and proper jobs for the masses will go long way
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Fidak
Jan 05, 2014 03:01am
Baddly depressing it is! An extremely wrong behavior of women towards an innocent young maid..feeling bad about her. I wish tht we the society cud improve individualy..!
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Sarwat
Jan 05, 2014 03:08am
Courts need to throw the book at that employer.
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Sayyar Khan
Jan 05, 2014 09:31am
Just awful and heart breaking sad news. 10 year old baby. Shame on these people. The women need to be beaten with same rod and put to death or one of her kid so she can really feel the pain.
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NL
Jan 05, 2014 09:42am
Shame on lady employer, what was she thinking? Does a ten years old even understand enough between good and bad to be tortured like thaty? I hope she doesn't think of herself religious and God fearing lady! Because she already committed a heavy SIN!
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rana1
Jan 05, 2014 09:51am
treatment of other human beings is not based on whether you are an Arab or Indian or Pakistani, Christian or Muslim or Hindu, but is based on humanity.
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Simba
Jan 05, 2014 10:17am
This is another sad sad case in Pakistan. It highlights the fact humanity is losing out in this failed country.
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Masoud
Jan 05, 2014 02:53pm
Surprised at the news. Not seen this report in other media's coverage. Do we need AP to report event of Pakistan in Pakistan quoted in Pakistan news paper. If this news is not fake then proper coverage should have been given by Pakistani media rather than AP quoting the news
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Khalid
Jan 05, 2014 09:42pm
@Masoud:
The fact is that all of us are involved in child labour. We do not look at these children as human beings. Most of us treat them worse than we treat our pet dogs. This will not stop unless we do something about it in our own homes. I have a 10 year old and hope we never have to live in Pakistan as poor people. Not because being poor is bad but because how poor are treated by so called rich and educated ones. This is happening in every single city of Pakistan. I just hope this women, who killed the child, is sent to jail for life.
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Khalid
Jan 05, 2014 09:46pm
@rana1:
Paying off the parents is the worst kind of justice. These people with money have a legitimate reason to be like this. Please don't allow them to get away with murder because they have money.
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AFB
Jan 05, 2014 11:43pm
@Masoud:
Its real news and all media has reported it, both print and electronic. Maid was tortured to death in Askari 9 area of Lahore cantt.
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sunil
Jan 06, 2014 07:01am
How can we prevent extreme physical abuse of defenseless innocent poor children in future? There are so many more girls and boys who are not being killed but tortured physically and emotionally in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri lanka.
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Tariq Mahmood
Jan 07, 2014 12:36am
This is indeed very sad. The perpetrator has to face the courts.
I don't question the news but always am wary of the authenticity. The authenticity of the allegation needs to be established & then action needs to be taken accordingly.
We all do it. We treat our house staff as animals. Just walk into PC. See how we treat our house staff. Their I have seen young maids sitting on the floor with the 'honorable' families throwing chewed chicken on the plates. Everyone watches. Everyone considers this a norm.
Lets face facts. We all do it. We all do it openly & then pretend we never have seen anything like this.
How many of us have the decency to take our house staff inside with us when we go to dinner parties?
How many of us have meals sitting with our household staff?
These are the core values of Islam to treat everyone with respect. Yet we forget this everyday of our life & all are doing this.
Our household staff are as human as us. Lets look into ourselves too, stop doing this, stop others from doing this & learn from this.
We are one humanity - rich, poor, employers or employees.
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ms
Jan 07, 2014 05:29am
@Oz:
It is the systems fault bad governess and no laws for employees legal rights
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HN
Jan 07, 2014 06:22pm
@independentthinker:
That's the point exactly. We are NOT a civilized society, no matter how much we like to think of it being one, or how ever much it is trumpeted to be. This woman needs to be named and shamed, and thrown in jail for the rest of her life.
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