Maryam Nawaz visits teenage maid Rizwana at hospital

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Thursday visited the fourteen-year-old domestic helper Rizwana at the Lahore General Hospital, where she is getting treatment after brutally tortured allegedly by Somia Asim, the wife of civil Judge Asim Hafeez.

Lahore General Hospital Medical Superintendent Khalid Bin Salman briefed Maryam Nawaz about Rizwana’s condition, saying that she was now out of danger.

Maryam Nawaz said that Pakistan has laws in place to protect children under 18 and that if these laws were effectively implemented, such cases would not occur. She said that many such incidents go unnoticed.

She said that the state bears the responsibility of safeguarding and educating the next generation.

Regarding the suspect being granted bail, Maryam Nawaz said that it happened because “she is the wife of a judge.”

Read more: Maid torture case: SC moved for suo moto

Earlier on Tuesday, a district and sessions court in Islamabad granted interim bail to Somia, who was identified as the main accused in the torture of 14-year-old housemaid Rizwana.

Additional Sessions Judge Abida Sajjad heard Somia’s plea and approved the bail till August 17 against a surety bond of Rs100,000.