by Meraj Alam in the Nation, May 18, 2017
GILGIT – The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution for tracing reasons behind incidents of suicide and its prevention.
A recent wave of suicides in Ghizer district worried the lawmakers in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) as six more youngsters reportedly committed suicide during the last week.
The resolution had been tabled by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rani Atiqa. Speaker Fida Muhammad Nashad constituted a special committee to ascertain causes behind the trend of suicides among the youth in the region.
Deputy Speaker Jafarullah while speaking in the House criticised police for not properly investigating suicide cases. “Police had declared several incidents as suicides, but on complaints of the relatives of the deceased, when proper investigation was conducted, the cases came out to be murders”, he said. He said that police avoided investigating such cases on pressure of political figures also.
Lawmaker from district Ghizar Nawaz Khan said that many factors were involved in the suicide cases, including financial problems, unemployment, mental disorders as well as use of drugs among youth.
Doctor Iqbal, minister for works and law, said that honour killings were also being declared as suicide in the region. He said education and health departments or private organisations could carry out proper work to trace reasons behind the incidents of suicide.
According to police, a student of 8th class and resident of Gupes village, Shafait Husain took his life by hanging himself on Wednesday. Another student of BA and resident of Japoka village of Punial valley Abdul Shah also took his life a day ago, while the 3rd incident of suicide was reported on the same day from Amalsat village of Yaseen valley, where another student, Syed Jalal Hussain, shot himself dead in his room.
In another incident, a resident of Damas village of Punial committed suicide on Sunday last. The victim was a matriculation student. A resident of Ghakuch, district headquarters of Ghizer, also committed suicide by hanging himself. In the sixth incident, a resident of Barjangle village of Ashkoman had also reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree.
Yaqoob Tai, a local journalist while taking to The Nation said that over 290 youth including boys and girls had committed suicide since 2000. He said that literary rate in the area was comparatively better than other districts of the region; therefore the prevalence of suicide incidents was terrifying.http://nation.com.pk/newspaper-picks/18-May-2017/wave-of-suicide-incidents-worries-gb-lawmakers
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