GUJRAT: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday warned offenders to stop targeting women and girls as the law would apply equally to the rich and the poor.

Referring to a recent incident involving a girl riding a scooty and a petrol station employee, she expressed concerns at the grant of bail to suspects and urged the judiciary to ensure that punishments served as a deterrent.

She said she was willing to meet the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, if necessary, to raise issues concerning public safety and access to justice.

Ms Nawaz said she had personally contacted the girl involved in the incident and had brought the two parties in the petrol station case face to face, stressing that influential individuals could no longer assume they were above the law.

Urges judiciary to ensure that punishments serve as a deterrent

She added that the suspects in rape cases in Punjab were being arrested within two hours, adding that the government wanted women and vulnerable citizens to feel protected by the state. She urged citizens to report incidents of abuse promptly so that offenders could not repeat their actions. She said the government would stand by victims regardless of the social or political influence of the offenders.

The chief minister was addressing a laptop and Honhaar Scholarship distribution ceremony at the University of Rasul on Tuesday.

She announced setting up a teaching hospital in Rasul while saying that admissions to the Rasul Medical College would begin in January 2027.

She said the government had invested billions of rupees in the University of Rasul, where new departments of social sciences, life sciences and business management had been established to enable the students to pursue higher education closer to home.

“Only 149 students were enrolled at the university when I took the oath to the office, compared with around 3,000 at present.”

Ms Nawaz also announced that the distribution of electric bikes would begin on Nov 5 to facilitate students’ mobility and reduce their dependence on others for transport. She referred to Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar programme, under which the government was working to build 250,000 houses, and said more than 35,000km of roads had been constructed or repaired across Punjab.

The chief minister said the government was providing students with laptops, scholarships, electric bikes and chromebooks to help them pursue education and build a better future.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026