ISLAMABAD: A total number of 11,789 cases of violence against women have been registered in the country since January 2009.

According to the available data from Ministry of Interior: 8433 cases in Punjab, 680 cases in Sindh, 1656 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 333 cases in Balochistan, 272 cases in Islamabad Capital Territory, 362 cases in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and 62 cases in Gilgit and Baltistan have been recorded since 2009.

A total of nine women police stations have been established in Karachi, Larkana, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad where the female police officers are dealing with cases involving women.

Moreover, Ladies Complaint Units (LCUs) have also been established in Islamabad at Police Station Margalla and Police Station Sector I-9 which are functioning.

The police authorities in all provinces have taken a number of steps to control such type of violence in their respective jurisdiction.

To protect the women from gender harassment; all females accused of a crime are kept in women police stations in the custody of female police officers, and if a registered case requires further investigation by a male police officer then a female police officer must be present during the interrogation.

Section 509 PPC was amended/substituted vide Criminal Law Amendment Act 2009, regarding the protection of women.

The AJ&K Legislative Assembly adopted the Section 174-A in the Criminal Procedure Code 1898. According to this Section a doctor can record the statement of women, who have been burnt and if a woman dies, the statement of that woman will be used as evidence in the court of law.

Directorate of Human rights, Police Child & Women Protection Committee, and Police Child & Women Protection Centre in Peshawar have been established.

According to the Ministry, necessary directions have been issued to all the DPOs/SPs to take all preventive measures and ensure that no such incident recur in future. In case such an incident occurs, the investigation of the case would be carried out in a proper manner and the accused would be arrested after fulfilling all legal formalities, within the prescribed period under section 173 Cr. Pc.