ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Interior Wednesday decided to start public hearings countrywide on rising incidents of rape, child abuse and violence against women to find out reasons behind the upswing of such crimes. The committee that met under the chair of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz at Parliament House, unanimously approved that the forum should start public hearings while visiting all provinces to reach the root causes behind such crimes.

The proposal of public hearings came from the committee chairman who apprised the lawmakers with great concern over the increasing incidents of rape, child abuse and violence against women across the country.  In the last couple of weeks, many cases of child abuse and rape and crimes against women have been reported in different parts of the country. The incident of harassment and assault of a female tiktoker by hundreds of people near Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on Independence Day had shocked the nation prompting Prime Minister Imran Khan to take the notice.

At the outset of the meeting, the committee offered fateha for high elevation of ranks of the Kashmiri resistance leader late Syed Ali Geelani and two soldiers of the Pakistan Army who embraced martyrdom last day. To pay homage to the lifelong struggle of Geelani for the Kashmir cause, the chairman of the committee moved a resolution which was unanimously adopted.