Karachi:Incidents of sexual harassment and abuse of destitute and orphaned girls by powerful people and mafias belonging to ruling and elite class is not acceptable at any cost, and the government must put an end to this shameful menace, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Wednesday.

He said safety and protection of children, girls and women in our society is dismally insufficient. He said laws are there but they are divorced from implementation. He said ruling politicians only give sermons but they lack courage to take solid action. He said the sexual abuse scandal of Kashyana Lahore and eye-opening allegations and confessions by its former superintendent Afshan Latif have hung the head of whole nation in shame. He said if these allegations are true, a serious action must be taken against the criminals involved in molestation of the orphaned girls, and if these allegations are wrong the inquiry report in this regard should be made public.

Altaf Shakoor said that the weaker segments of our society are vulnerable because the rule of law and uphold of the constitution is still a distant dream in Pakistan. He said two years have already passed but the sitting regime, who got vote by befooling people with the slogan of ‘change’, has failed to bring any positive change. He said mafia and cartels of sugar, wheat, oil, gas, CNG, electricity and other sectors are being continually patronized by the PTI-MQM-P coalition government. He said the cases against the rulers like the foreign funding case of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) are pending. He said probes against the mafias thriving under the wings of the rulers are going snail-paced; however, the witch hunting of the opposition and civil society is going full throttle. He said the poor masses are fed up with this ugly farce of ‘change’ and they are now cursing the cruel rulers and their powerful godfathers.

He said the historic depreciation of Pak rupee, unbridled inflation, insecurity and lawlessness, price hike, joblessness, corruption and kickbacks, free hand to profit-hungry mafias and cartelism, and the back-breaking burden of local and foreign loans have broken all previous records in the ongoing tenure of the sitting PTI regime. He said the rulers have proved to be spectacular failure and they should have a mercy on poor people, show a moral courage and voluntarily step down without wasting further time of the Pakistani nation. He said besides on local fronts, the sitting regime is also brow-beaten on regional and international level, and the unchallenged Indian dominance on Kashmir is one of its glaring examples.

Altaf Shakoor said the only remedy for all our troubles is in the uphold of the constitution and rule of law. The recent remarks of the apex court about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has unveiled the real ugly face of dictatorial and undemocratic mindset of the sitting regime. He said after the leakage of infamous judge video scandal, this is another slap across the face of government that is using the tool of accountability to disdain the opposition and political dissent. He said we need drastic reforms at all levels to make Pakistan a safe, secure and law abiding society, free from the exploitation and abuse of the vulnerable segments of the country. He demanded adequate safety and security to the girls and women living in shelter houses in different areas of Pakistan including Lahore and Karachi to save them from the claws of sex-hungry beasts.